👓trilogy-lore-and-story

[patent maple]

Awesome

[sharp token]

Sweet

Our turf has been created

[amber current]

This is awesome.

[desert briar]

every game has good lore and story
EXCEPT COP

[sharp token]

Me, you, and Crimson will be the lords of this land

[queen lava]

Oh sweet

[austere hemlock]

[hazy horizon]

Hell yeah

It is a very good day today bros

[pine shadow]

Indeed brother

[tawny osprey]

cool

[dark hollow]

Been a long time coming

I really hope GSC knew what they were doing with the story this time

[sharp token]

[thorny field]

||When you see Strelok in Clear Sky at the CNPP, is this the same timeline as when we play as him in SoC or is this before?||

[restive steeple]

it's before SoC

I believe it's the exact run that results in him being brainwashed

[queen lava]

It is ||the same timeline. Clear sky happens before Shadow of Chernobyl.
So you shoot Strelok with the em-1 rifle and then gets brainwashed by the c-consciousness into being a marked agent, brainwashed guys with the s.t.a.l.k.e.r tattoos who do the work of c con assigned to them, and in the SoC you see him as a marked agent in transit|| (SoC and CS Ending spoilers)

[restive steeple]

are we spoiling stuff in the lore channel?

[hazy horizon]

||Before SoC. Chronologically Clear Sky events happen before SoC and CoP events||

[queen lava]

ig

And if we are not then it doesn't hurt

[thorny field]

Cool thanks. I was just confused|| why in CS Cordon had more Loners controlling it, so seemed like it occured after SoC||

[hazy horizon]

||Cordon loners united in CS due to military major Khaletskiy selling information about stalkers to bandits. In SoC Cordon is more militarized and its logical to assume that military killed Valerian (his corpse at the Red Forest is either an easter egg or build remnant) and destroyed neutral base||

[restive steeple]

||why exactly did they kill their only hostage||

[hazy horizon]

I don't follow

[restive steeple]

||they kill, or get rid of in some fashion, Khaletskiy.||

I'm fairly sure the loner leader even talks about how he's the only reason they haven't been razed to the ground

[hazy horizon]

ahhh yeah. Valerian says that holding Khaletskiy as a hostage is a guarantee that military won't bomb their asses back to the Stone Age, but did Khaletskiy got killed though? Games dialogues don't mention anything about it

[restive steeple]

he disappears after the questline

[hazy horizon]

I always kinda assumed that they got rid of Khaletskiy as soon as he gave up loot coordinates because stalkers felt invincible after defeating few squads of military

[restive steeple]

which was apparently not true

[thorny field]

Yeah I didn't remember him getting killed either

[restive steeple]

I assume they killed him when they got rid of him because they are very clearly on bad terms

[empty nimbus]

This channel is gold

[hazy horizon]

theres also scenario of Scar helping Khaletskiy but I just don't buy it. in his dialogues with Valerian Scar mentions that he's not a big fan of military. so chances of that happening are pretty low

[restive steeple]

I know you can give him a pistol and he shoots his guards, then flees

[analog wadi]

||I found Valerian's body in the Red Forest, but when I came back to the loner's base he was there standing as always, so I think it's just a bug||

[hazy horizon]

The Russian wiki claims it's an easter egg left by the map's designer

It is interesting that a dead Valerian can be found in the Red Forest not far from the tank, although at the same time he is alive on Cordon. His corpse is an Easter egg from the game designer of the location, Piotr Duszynski.

I have no idea how to verify whether this is true or not, but the Russian wiki had always been more trustworthy than the English wiki when it comes to this kind of stuff

[restive steeple]

just to be sure, this is just for trilogy lore, not for stalker 2 lore

I might leave the server to avoid spoilers actually

[desert briar]

yes

remember

check pins

there is a vbery important message here

[queen lava]

Joke

CoP is allowed here

[torpid mauve]

Im gonna play the new stalker game and if say i like it and want to play another, what stalker game should i buy after if i wanted to play in chronological order? or does it not really matter

[queen lava]

The best order to play the trilogy is the release order.
Shadow of Chernobyl(SoC/ShoC) first

Clear Sky(CS) second,
Call of Pripyat (SoC) last.

[lone bobcat]

If you wanna play it lore accurate go from Clear Sky then Shadow Of Chernobyl then Call Of Pripyat

[iron grail]

Still definitely recommend release order. Clear Sky spoils a few things from Shadow of Chernobyl because it assumes you have played it first

[queen lava]

Yeah. Release order is infinitely better than in chronological order.

[desert briar]

it is still recommended to play them in the release order as that way the story and lore will be revealed the most naturally as opposed to CS expecting you to understand and know concepts and mechanics from the get go

[regal forge]

Yeah, when I played clear sky for the first time I was like: “Huh… should defenetly recommend to my friends the release order”

[dusk stratus]

I highly recommend not to because you will spoil the soc plot twist by recognizing your strelok with the tattoo and it will feel bad downgrade from the games mechanics

[lone bobcat]

All I'm saying is someone might try to play lore accurate

[worldly radish]

what happened between the gamees and the past now - might happen wwhom knows sircaa looking at you - whys there no sgt spooner

[faint loom]

Bait used to be believable.

[weary solar]

I mean he's based lol

[austere crypt]

the only one with an actually half decent story is SoC

Clear Sky is goofy and now Strelok is an asshole for some reason?, CoP uhhh these helicopters fell down find out why

[hazy horizon]

how is Clear Sky's story goofy lol? Its story happens before SoC and CoP

and Strelok in CS isn't brainwashed yet

[austere crypt]

I just think its silly that we go from playing strelok to trying to kill him

[hazy horizon]

I can agree about CoP story being goofy though, because of this: "Stay alert in the Zone and don’t rely on old information. When you return to an anomalous area you’ve already explored, you may find that the old tested path is no longer available."

https://stalker.fandom.com/wiki/100_Zone_Survival_Tips#TIP_#54:

"New artifacts may appear in anomalous areas that you’ve already explored after an emission."

them (military) somehow never noticing difference between earlier scans is also strange

[hazy horizon]

it gives good insight about how he ended up as a marked agent though

[serene cedar]

How so? Every games story is told from a different perspective with a different protagonist. Their allegiances and goals don't have to line up.

[faint loom]

Bait used to be believable.

[weary solar]

Check out 4 helicopters that crashed and come back home...peak

[hazy horizon]

Its even funnier considering the fact that even loading tips tell you the reasons why operation failed

[hazy horizon]

1+1 too hard for stalker military

[weary solar]

ong

[faint loom]

Bait used to be believable.

[weary solar]

[desert briar]

youll come around mini nuke...they always do...

[faint loom]

https://tenor.com/view/sidorovich-gif-20097310

[weary solar]

embed fail

[desert briar]

https://tenor.com/view/cat-corn-cateatcorn-gif-1021488344150214372

happens

[faint loom]

Heeeeeey that’s cheating. Can I have embed permissions just this uno time. I got this real good gif I don’t think anyone is expecting.

[desert briar]

Im just a lonely jannie, ain't got the perms

good luck

[faint loom]

https://tenor.com/view/sidorovich-gif-20097310

That’s it. I’m out.

[opaque oriole]

if i know the fleshes dont jump... and the artifacts dont have "durability"

[fair gale]

So lore question. In lab x18 were those babies in there? I'm guessing if they were that's how poltergeist were made?

[hazy horizon]

thats up to interpretation. games never revealed origins of poltergeists (just some rumors in PDA entry about them in SoC)

generally lore about mutants in the trilogy is very limited

[fair gale]

Makes sense. The people that did know are probably either dead or somewhere else hiding. I like to think that the weird baby things are poltergeists tho. Or maybe burers

[hazy horizon]

speaking of burers, they actually do have a lore. here's more insight about them from CoPs site (that info isn't stated in CoP itself btw) https://cop.stalker-game.com/?page=burer

[ashen karma]

hi wo is bug report for pc ?

[vague sparrow]

best game ever made!

[queen lava]

No. This is the link to it
https://support.stalker2.com/

[ashen karma]

ty

[iron grail]

The zone works in mysterious ways

[half kelp]

I like to think they can also manipulate the density of objects. Hence why a tin can nearly domed me.

[errant pivot]

So im on the part where I got to talk to Diode, but the traders in that area hate me and I cant enter the building, how can i make them like me

[queen lava]

This is the chat for the trilogy lore

[errant pivot]

So im on the part where I got to talk to Diode, but the traders in that area hate me and I cant enter the building, how can i make them like me

[fathom pawn]

What would happen if we nuked the zone again to get rid of all the mutants?

[restive steeple]

every attempt to nuke the zone has failed

the last time there was an attempt an emission interrupted it and killed almost everyone involved

[fathom pawn]

Launch nuke from higher up than a plane?

[restive steeple]

satellites burn up

it's likely it would also hit an anomaly before impact too

[fallow lance]

Even if you would hit the zone with lets say an ICBM from the Mainland?

[restive steeple]

yeah

also just that nuking it would not be worth it and both cause extreme damage around it and destroy almost everything of value

assuming it wasn't stopped by an anomaly, emission, or whatever the zone employs

I forgot to mention kicking up the radioactive dust around chornobyl too

[fathom pawn]

I know that if anything it’ll probably make the radiation and mutants worse but I’m just surprised that the military hasn’t done more operations to try and destroy the zone

[restive steeple]

they've made multiple attempts, each one ending in disaster

2008, 2011, 2012, whenever the nuclear convoy was

it's like throwing money into a fire, a lot goes in and very little comes out

stalkers take a large percentage of artefacts out of the zone anyways

[fathom pawn]

Are there books or something I can look into on that? It sounds interesting

[restive steeple]

nothing solidly canonical, it's more fanfiction then anything

[fathom pawn]

That’s disappointing I’d love to read or watch something like that set in the universe

I know there are some books already made but they’re mostly in Russian except 2 English ones and they’re kinda old

[primal lantern]

The moment when Skif said: "It's the shadow of chernobyl" and then when Strelok looked at the Clear Sky made me feel like the call of pripyat was the skif we met along the way. Then they all escaped from pripyat.
Bravo Vince.

[stuck acorn]

what is the rationale behind the fact, that many disabled vehicles are radiated (e. g. in the Red Forest), but the terrain around them - not necessarily?

[fair gale]

I think it might be like the radiation mightve dispersed from the area around but hasn't dispersed from the vehicle?

[patent maple]

No

[urban veldt]

Keep the vote anonymous

[patent maple]

No

[urban veldt]

Keep the vote anonymous

[gusty hazel]

Third option is fantastic lmao

[restive steeple]

what's the inciting proof

[urban veldt]

no real proof, but its implied by their actions
its generally accepted by the lore maniacs

[urban veldt]

it is untill you realize almost third votes went to it
this server really got flooded by gammafriends recently

[gusty hazel]

Didn't you know that Mercs are Americans! They speak with foreign accents! And there was a U.S. Army skin for multiplayer that had nothing to do with the lore!

[urban veldt]

Armenians*

[gusty hazel]

Yea I know, when you tell people the foreign accents is from the Caucasus region they don't believe you and try to use Anomaly lore/fan misconceptions

Shout-out to Ara! He a Armenian 💪

[urban veldt]

💪

[restive steeple]

have you considered they're just shitters

[urban veldt]

B-but..
My bildo

Oblivion Lost desdocs wouldnt lie to me

[queen lava]

Is that the thing from Lost alpha??!!!
||Also bvildo is not canon||

[urban veldt]

Shut up
Bvildo shows what mercenaris were supposed to be
They would patrol Red Forest instead of Monoshit

[gusty hazel]

I love the "killers" faction 😍

[queen lava]

Bvildo had freedom attacking ecologist

[urban veldt]

Based

Those nerds deserve a beating from some chadly stoners

[queen lava]

Nah. Kruglov would win
Soy NATO backed hippies vs chad kruglov

[urban veldt]

Kruglov is secretely freedomer
The glass on his helmet is actually see-through
But his helmet is just filled with weed smoke

[gusty hazel]

Freedom isn't backed by NATO. They get their weapons from the black market

[queen lava]

Yeah that's true. Its the Mercs who are backed by nato (jk).

[gusty hazel]

The Armenian and Caucasian masses backed by NATO confirmed

[queen lava]

United States of Armenia

[urban veldt]

The Group was actually NATO funded

[gusty hazel]

It all makes sense now!

[queen lava]

Turn out the gamma friends were right and НАТО controls, freedom, mercs, and the Monolith because they all use НАТО guns

Ask the S2 channels. This is for the trilogy.

[desert briar]

https://tenor.com/view/pepe-frog-gif-27124187

people cant read category descriptions

[gusty hazel]

It all makes sense! The stinky bandit masses must be controlled by OTAN!

[elder pivot]

No such thing on mobile

[elder pivot]

What channel? I dont see any for Heart of Cherbobyl

[gusty hazel]

#☢┃stalker-general

[queen lava]

^

[fickle pelican]

Was a stalker saying he one day went to sleep in his home (in Kyiv I believe) and the next day woke up in the Zone part of STALKER trilogy base or was that a mod addition?

[royal jolt]

That actually happened IRL, to a guy named John Stalker.

[fickle pelican]

gasp

[spiral agate]

So whats the difference between Warden and Duty

[hushed wharf]

https://centrumzony.pl/uniwersum/s-t-a-l-k-e-r-2-z-2010/fabula-i-zakonczenia/ Is this reputable at all? Ive been digging trying to find a solid narrative for the OG stalker 2, but I also found this https://www.reddit.com/r/stalker/comments/nv8yeu/translated_scenariovsd_from_the_recent_july_1st/ which pretty clearly conflicts, and seems way more reputable

oh also potential spoilers for the Stalker 2, cause I havent finished it yet im only to the garbage rn

some of the story elements seem slightly similar but some not so much

also are there any leaked screenshots from the canceled game? Ive seen a lot (if not all) of the artwork.

[gaunt arch]

Warden are an out-of-the-zone international group that took over the ukrainian army to control what goes in or out of the zone. Except they ended up pretty much the same way the ukrainian army did in the previous games: corrupt and mostly incompetent.

Duty is a group that was formed out of disillusioned army members that defected and formed their own group to protect people from the Zone and its mutants.

[urban veldt]

The difference is that Ward has Lt. Novák and Duty doesnt
Ward wins

[red igloo]

what is gamma

[urban veldt]

Tarkov esque mod that breaks the lore and spreads misinformation

https://www.reddit.com/r/stalker/comments/1bgic4x/accidentally_triggered_video_of_guy_laying_in/?rdt=63208
Textbook example of gammafriend

[fair gale]

So are freedom and duty the same origins different end goal?

[patent maple]

Different origins, different end goals

Freedom was created by a group of Stalkers who remembered each other from their Hippie times

[fair gale]

Oh?

[hazy horizon]

Ye, and Duty was created by ex military

[patent maple]

Duty's origin started with the failed Army Raid of 2006. Captain Tachenko fixed for the communications to go down, so they had no way to contact the Military after the failure of the operation. Seemingly abandoned by the Military, he formed Duty. Many other ex-Military soldiers joined up, but nowadays, there are also Stalkers in Duty

[fair gale]

So what's freedoms deal. Everyone gets to do whatever in the zone?

[spiral agate]

So the Ukranian Military’s are dismissed guarding the zone?

[fair gale]

Or I guess how did they originate?

[hazy horizon]

They want the Zone to be free for everyone and information about the Zone be known to whole humankind too

[spiral agate]

Oh wait sorry,

Control

[fair gale]

Oh. I actually don't agree with that tbh

Like their goals

[spiral agate]

But the Warden’s more experienced than the Ukrainian Military?

Of the Zone

[patent maple]

Free access, research the Zone, coexist with the Zone, let the world know what's happening in the Zone

Now with HoC, I don't know

[spiral agate]

But i heard Freedom somehow took over Rostok?

[hazy horizon]

HoC might have different Duty and Freedom yeah

[fair gale]

If too many people were to know about this crazy ass nutcase realm I think it would be bad

[hazy horizon]

Tbh ye. Even representative of C-Con in SoC said that humanity isn't ready for the truth

[fair gale]

But it's been like a decade so stuff could've easily changed alot since then

[hazy horizon]

Thats 1 thing I don't agree with Freedom

People will learn the truth and? What if they won't like it and join Duty lol

[patent maple]

Same

I agree with everything except that

Then again, Freedom does form a sort of law where needed

Like poaching mutants

[fair gale]

Then like renegades are renegade mercs. The actual mercs are personally hired by outside groups to have a foothold in the zone,monolith are crazy ass cultists

[hazy horizon]

Renegades barely have any lore (in original games at least) but it still should be noted that the Zone's renegades are traitorous members of factions and various stalkers who became outcasts as a result of their disloyal actions. This is even implied by Clear Sky members dialogue:

"The Swamps are a haven for renegades of every kind. All types of people drop in here - random loners, outcasts from various factions, and just plain criminals. We welcome them all, only some get the open-arms treatment, and some the feet-first kind."

[patent maple]

Renegades are robbers and killers

[fair gale]

Yall ever think the mutants like controllers could group up and become a faction? Or are things like burers and controllers too far gone? I ask cuz of the controller on cop that tells you to go away

[hazy horizon]

in CS they technically are considered as a faction gameplaywise but no, that CoP controller who tells you to go away is the unique case

[fair gale]

So bandits but not organized?

[patent maple]

They're technically a group, yet also not

At day time, mutants hunt each other for food. At night, they form packs to hunt humans

[fair gale]

But I meant do yall think there's any semblance of people left in there to group up? Also are there new muties being made somewhere or were there just alot made?

[patent maple]

Not in that way, tbh

Also, doubtfully. I figure it's natural reproduction

[fair gale]

Like I'm guessing bloodsuckers have a way to breed cuz they're the least human human mutant but the others still seem like they could've been human before still.

[patent maple]

In the case of Controllers and Burers, I doubt it's the case though

[hazy horizon]

mutants like controllers, snorks, burers etc 100% can't reproduce. but others might

[patent maple]

We know Lassie got puppies, for example

And Spotty had a puppy

[fair gale]

Then the geists I'm guessing from what we see in lab x18 are made. Like. I'm guessing the tube's with the weird babies in them were proto geists and the one we fight is like defending it's home

[hazy horizon]

yeah, Garbage Duty NPCs in SoC also have dialougue saying that "mutants breed like flies" (could also be a figure of speech tho)

[patent maple]

Doubtfully

[fair gale]

Oh the animal mutants no doubt reproduce hell maybe the pseudogiants do too

[patent maple]

Like, honestly, we don't even know what goes on underground

There are entire NESTS underground

So how many are there even there?

[hazy horizon]

theres also implication of flesh mutants being man made, Ozersky implied that in CoP

"I can only hypothesize at this stage... I believe that the Zone was formed as a consequence of some new force. Electromagnetic fields, physical force or radiation couldn't have changed the biosphere so quickly. Obviously, some mutations can be explained by radiation... But, excuse me! An ordinary pig would need hundreds, if not thousands, of years to mutate into flesh! In the Zone the mutation occurred in a couple of years. It's as if someone directly altered the genetic information in individual animals. The thought of that is enough to send shivers down my spine."

[hollow pecan]

zytherkaldrok has been warned

Reason: Bad word usage

[hazy horizon]

mutants like controllers, burers are man made also: https://cop.stalker-game.com/?page=burer https://cop.stalker-game.com/?page=controler

[fair gale]

I can imagine pseudogiants just wandering in perpetual torment cuz they're 3 people fused into a blob

[hazy horizon]

and we also know that snorks are remnants of humans, as for bloodsuckers and pseudogiants there's no lore about their origins

judging by their human foot hanging from their lower back, their face and even bald spot i assume that pseudogiants were most likely humans at 1 point

[fair gale]

Then the geists I think are like lab grown tbh. Especially from what we find in x18

[patent maple]

I agree with this theory

[hazy horizon]

there's no lore about origins of poltergeists sadly (in the trilogy at least. just some rumors about their origins in PDA entry about them in SoC), but i think so too. can get behind that theory

[fair gale]

Might be like a bunch of dudes fused together tbh

[hazy horizon]

mutants in general don't have a lot of lore for some reason

[fair gale]

I also kinda wish we had a spooky flying monster like the gargoyle/demon from metro. Make it rare tho

[patent maple]

Oh, they exist

Crows

[fair gale]

I'm ok with alot of stuff on mutants being mysterious. How would anyone really know the origins of this stuff especially cuz I bet there are a crap ton more labs deep underground

[hazy horizon]

[fair gale]

I meant big flying monsters but sure lol

[rain karma]

Idk if this applies to this chat but does anyone know why I can't attach a scope to this Fora 221 I picked up there's no upgrade to help me at the tech

[fair gale]

What kind of scope is it?

[rain karma]

RNBW

It's listed as attachable to that rifle but it's not doing it

[fair gale]

Huh. Bug?

[rain karma]

I chalked it up to that 😦 upsetting but thank you

[hazy horizon]

doesn't mean that there should be such limited info about mutants in general. even in SoC Garbage loners tell you that most of the labs are already explored (can provide screenshot in #📸┃screens_and_videos channel) and plus Duty's squad in CS explored agroprom undergrounds and found some interesting documents

if so many labs and undergrounds are already explored even in the trilogy then why aren't there so limited info about mutants?

surely someone would find at least few documents regarding origins of mutants, read them and then tell other people

plus rumors spread fast in the Zone, so lack of info wouldn't be a problem in that case

[fair gale]

Unless said people who owned those labs were very thorough

[urban veldt]

Fear of unknown
Once you understand, its all gone

[fair gale]

But uh it looks like lab x18 was still In use for a bit with there being newer bodies down there and the weird geists still being there not decayed

[hazy horizon]

i would agree but some mutants having origins and some mutants not having it feels kinda lazy. in my opinion at least

[fair gale]

Metro is similar where you'll never really know the origin but you can make some very informed guesses

[hazy horizon]

why limiting the lore? either all mutants should have it or all of them should be mysterious

[urban veldt]

Well some are pretty obvious
I think those weirder ones should stay mysterious

When you see a dog or snork, its all clear
But bloodsucker cant be natural mutation and thats really all you need to know

[fair gale]

Bloodsuckers are legit the most alien. Thing is definitely not a like a person that they turned a psychtropic weapon. Feel like just with the geists they were lab grown. They got out and now infest everywhere

Yall wanna do a lil bit of biotheory stuff? Gonna grab a Pic of a geist real quick

[hazy horizon]

arguebly it isn't pretty obvious even when it does seem pretty obvious. take flesh mutants as an example, SoC literally says that its the domestic pig who also underwent serious biological changes since the day of the catastrophe. yet theres also implication in CoP of fleshes being man made

[patent maple]

Eh, I think it's fine this way

[fair gale]

At first I thought they had like nubby legs but nope

[urban veldt]

CoP on its way to prove itself to be the worst of the trilogy yet again by introducing more lore inconsistency

[fair gale]

Can probably be both tbh.

[urban veldt]

29% for option three 💀

[hazy horizon]

8 voted for third option 💀

[hazy horizon]

there's no concrete proof of that, but if you combine the evidence then we're getting somewhere. we do know that they want to find documents and are interested in X labs, but we don't yet know the real reason why they are so interested in them

What I always assumed is that that they are being hired by the remnants of the Group/people assosiated with them who want to cover their tracks or recover research

This could be also why mercs targeted Kruglov, since him and his team were researching the psi-emitters created by the Group in the past. Some loners and Dutyers in SoC also mention that mercs have generally became more active recently, and that they seem to be focused mostly on scientists. I think that it's a reaction to the fact that the Ukrainian government began to uncover some of the Group's secrets within the project Truth

Also, Serbin and his people are wearing the scientific suits. Besides the scientists who are researching the Zone, such suits were also worn by the Group members who worked in the labs before the disaster took place, as evident by their corpses that can be found in X-18. This supports the theory that Serbin could be their representative

[urban veldt]

Its genuenly boarover

[gusty hazel]

Bandits aren't one faction but rather large gangs

[patent maple]

It's Borover

[haughty juniper]

just made it to the center of the zone, wished for more world hunger 🗣️ 🔥

[livid badge]

Matt, I am here now

Btw the fact that C-Con = The Group is speculation

The group might be part of the C-Con, we have one mention in the trilogy and the context is unclear

[gusty hazel]

😱

[urban veldt]

Hi bestie

[livid badge]

I have been gone for 4 years

[urban veldt]

Youre still my bestie

[livid badge]

insane

[urban veldt]

Also what do you think of the results of this silly little poll? #👓trilogy-lore-and-story message

[patent maple]

Who tf are you?

[junior breach]

yoo just a quick question
im going into Stalker 2 without playing the other 3 games, is it necessary to play them first to understand whats going on or is it like RDR2 and RDR1 where you dont need to play one to understand whats happening in the other?

[patent maple]

Not necessarily, but it does help

[junior breach]

thanks, i was thinking of getting them cause they look good as well and it would be perfect to play while waiting for any bugs/performance updates

[patent maple]

Oh, 100%

[hazy horizon]

yaaay

welcome Surdno

[hollow steppe]

hey guys, was the map of zone always like this? Since there's pretty much every location from the original trilogy in the game, i feel like the locations are a little bit spread, not in a way we've seen it in the game (Like Zaton / Jupiter being on the opposite sites) or i remember finishing starting zone in Clear Sky from swamps you go east to Cordon which now is way West. Am i tripping here or the map is re-done to fit like current needs of the game?

like some locations are being pushed together (like dark valley is now part of garbage) which is just different name and that's okay, but like where everything is put on map doesn't feel right haha

[livid badge]

helps you see all the retcons too

[hollow steppe]

i'd say Stalker 2 has way too much locations and characters from the original trilogy to skip it. It's not necessary story wise but a lot of side things will just make more sense if you played the trilogy.

[patent maple]

I've found one so far

[livid badge]

map is entirely redone and old storylines no longer work because of that, lorewise it's better to treat hoc as a soft reboot instead of a continuation

it's is being marketed as a continuation though

[patent maple]

There likely are more, but I can't play the game so I'm not sure

[livid badge]

scar hallucinated the mech yard

barrier protect army warehouses from... ?????

and marked one surely couldn't make his way to the north past the brain scorcher... that is not on the way to the north xd

there are plenty, locations is really bad, a few times where devs rewrote story / went with fanfiction

i am like 99% sure a major plot element only appeared because a certain thing from cop was mislabeled on the wiki for a long time

[patent maple]

That got explained, no?

[patent maple]

What does HoC say?

[patent maple]

Yes, map is wack

[livid badge]

i have not made it there yet, it's just that there is no more radar on top

honestly going with real life zone locations is probably worst decision they could go with

[queen lava]

Use GeForce now if you have decent Internet. There is a free plan.

[livid badge]

just fit stuff into existing spaces around known locations, ain't so hard

[patent maple]

Wowzers, let's talk about that in a bit in #💬┃en_offtop

[livid badge]

i made that btw

[patent maple]

Retcon I found so far was the creation concept of the Coupons

[hollow steppe]

well it was described as "love letter to Ukraine" from the developers, makes sense they want to put some realism into it. On the other hand ye it would be cool to have some integrity with the original trilogy

[livid badge]

you mean the mention that money was physical prior and it is first digital money concept?

[patent maple]

Yes

CS disproves this

[livid badge]

tbh money in original trilogy was inconsistent, im sure whoever wrote the garbage dialogs with digital money mentions was the only one with that idea

lots of stuff just doesnt really work with digital money, the fact that traders cant pay you when you're away being one of them

[patent maple]

Canon = Canon

[livid badge]

in hoc there are quests where you get the reward far away

[hollow steppe]

i thought they just want to get rid of the ruble as u know, f russia kidna thing

[livid badge]

no, coupons were pre-2022 concept

[hollow steppe]

oh okay

[livid badge]

though they did experiment with hryvnia for a moment iirc

either way it's not about currency itself but about digital/physical

[patent maple]

SurDno

The Shining Zone

[livid badge]

that's me

[patent maple]

It's real

[livid badge]

the what is real?

[patent maple]

The Shining Zone

[livid badge]

what

[patent maple]

The Shining Zone

[livid badge]

i am not going to endorse this any further

if you don't mind spoilers i can pm you the stuff im most angry about in hoc, there are certianly lore and story decisions that are just terrible

non-spoiler is the fact that Knuckles is a goddamn loner, 10 years later

[patent maple]

Please do

[urban veldt]

Thats Sultans guard right?

[livid badge]

yes

CoP starts with him trying to become a bandit, he either succeeds at Shevchenko ship and becomes one immediately or dies in the process

how tf is he a loner 9 years later

[hazy horizon]

Knuckles is alive?

[urban veldt]

Dunno
What I want to knownis how the fuсk is the monolith civil war still going on 9 years after the faction fell apart

[livid badge]

lots of areas do not behave like so many years have passed

Sidorovich still doing nothing in his bunker, vehicle station still controlled by bandits

[urban veldt]

The original S2 2011 was supposed to take place in 2015 right?
The early draft I mean, the one similar to HoC

[livid badge]

i have not read the s2 docs too much, only the parts i was interested in about how they wanted certain characters to play out

tbh sid dying > sid being the same in his bunker 10 years later

[hazy horizon]

was Sakharov in the game? @livid badge

[livid badge]

i havent got to yantar myself but i heard people say no

or do you mean s2 2011?

in s2 2011 he was the main villian xd

well not really, but he sided with sircaa and sircaa were bad

[hazy horizon]

i meant in current S2

[queen lava]

#☢┃stalker-general is for S2 spoiler content

[somber karma]

Do we know what happened to scar and the members of clear sky? Is it possible they became monolith

[gusty hazel]

Clear Sky as a faction was wiped out with some small numbers of members still alive, Nimble and Novikov being two members who survived. They were most likely brainwashed or killed since they weren't really fighters.

Ofc the ending of CS shows a bunch of stalkers all being brainwashed

[somber karma]

Hoping that we can encounter scar in stalker 2 since there is a chance he lived

[misty ermine]

hey i was wondring what faction is that is controlling the yaniv staion and have the shops in pripyat, might be stupid question

[hazy horizon]

No one "controls" Yanov in CoP. It's a neutral territory. Same with Skadovsk

Also shops in Pripyat? Can you be more specific?

[queen lava]

I think he is talking about Stalker 2

[hazy horizon]

Ohh, that I dunno then. Trailers imply that Skadovsk is now under bandits control, though

[gusty hazel]

The people controling Yaniv (Yanov in Rus) seem to be a new faction

[misty ermine]

ye stalker 2 soory it seems like a new faction but cant find any info on them

||if you side with strelok they are your teammates in stalker 2 ||

[hazy horizon]

You guys better discuss stalker 2 in other channels then

This one is for the original trilogy

[misty ermine]

ok soz

[gusty hazel]

You might have wanted to add a spoiler to that. Not everyone here has played S2, And as Matt has said this is for the og trilogy

[unborn marlin]

Clear Sky says Prologue on the splash screen and box, and judgying by the tie in to SoC with Merc Scar, would Clear Sky be the first game to play in the trilogy?

Cause I played Clear Sky first for my second time with the series(first time I played SOC then CS) this time and I felt like SoC makes more sense.

I guess theyre simultaneous events that can happen since Marked One picks up the suit from Khasparov in Yantar

And Merc Scar went to Khasparov and hes like yeah Ive seen who youre looking for he picked up some equipment from me.

Sakhavor* lol

[queen lava]

Clear sky should be second because||it ruins the big surprise of SoC|| (SoC spoiler)

[unborn marlin]

Oh got it ok

[urban veldt]

Sultansk*

[patent maple]

It gets explained in HoC, if you're interested

[sour marsh]

Struggling to tell the factions apart. Is there like a wiki with both the patches and their faction summary?

[foggy escarp]

https://stalker.fandom.com/wiki/Factions

[urban veldt]

En wiki

[hazy horizon]

Technically events of Clear Sky happen before SoC and CoP events (Chronologically it's CS, SoC and CoP), but starting with SoC is still recommended

[somber karma]

Have to wait for the weekend then 😭

[livid badge]

hoc canon != trilogy canon 🥴

Scar in Clear Sky was pretty much a done character, they told his story entirely and did not plan to bring them back in any sequels, S2 2011 didnt focus on Scar either (but explored fates of other CS members).

[sly venture]

S2 2011?

[livid badge]

The cancelled game, the previous S2 prior to 2018 announcement

Most of its design documents and assets have been published online

[dreamy juniper]

i remember the calander on Skif's apartment's door is 2021

[sly venture]

oh ok yeah

[patent maple]

=/=, but you know how it B

[sly venture]

is that confirmed?

[patent maple]

"All games are canon"

"HoC will be in the same universe as the Trilogy"

Which causes retcons

[sly venture]

oh yeah ofc

[patent maple]

Which means you'll either have to accept that or split everything up like I do with Fallout canon

[urban veldt]

Deep down we all know S2 2004 was the best
I think it was 2004

[patent maple]

Black Monolith, my beloved

[urban veldt]

Black Monolith > Black Stalkers

[gusty hazel]

https://stalker.fandom.com/ru/wiki/Категория:Группировки Russian wiki is more accurate

Just have it translated if anything

[livid badge]

The official position is that it is a continuation but it works closer to a soft reboot due to sheer amount of retcons, inconsistencies and fanon-turned-canon.

Also in desdocs hoc devs referred to trilogy lore as “the old canon” so take that as you will

[fair gale]

So it's likely that the stuff from the previous games did happen it's just they weren't fully true. I can see that especially with how time can get screwy in the zone

[livid badge]

I referred to a different game than HoC, S2 2011 has nothing to do with HoC.

[urban veldt]

I mean
S2 2011 had two story drafts no?
The one GSC decided to use back then was the second draft
And HoC seems to be adapted from the first draft
Altho with lots of creative liberties

[livid badge]

I wouldn’t say adapted as it does not actually adapt anything further than the cop cliffhangers

Like ofc S2 was gonna feature SIRCAA if it’s mentioned in cop ending, same with strider forming a new faction

[urban veldt]

I read a bit about the drafts on RU wiki and there was SIRCAA, zone expanding etc

[livid badge]

It’s not exactly reused ideas since they just come from what the previous game ended on

[urban veldt]

Youre wise

[livid badge]

Wisdom comes with years of SWZC service

But that being said, they did take inspiration from some original s2 2011 concepts and I think the first s2 trailer (more like teaser but ok) reused s2 2011 novice model

[urban veldt]

[sly venture]

fair enough

[iron grail]

As is tradition

[unborn marlin]

Can we add that Sidorovich opened up a pizza restaurant in the UK?
It's called Dee Pizza.
https://i.imgur.com/VdnURAr.png

[unborn marlin]

yeah definitely.

[sour marsh]

For the veterans of the series, how difficult was dealing with bloodsuckers compared to HoC? Were they squishier then? Tankier? Trying to adjust fighting mutants to what OG veterans faced.

[urban veldt]

Play the games and find out

[iron grail]

SoC bloodsuckers were barely a threat once you understood them. CS ones were tougher because they were completely invulnerable when cloaked.

[minor pollen]

I played on the veteran difficulty its not that hard

they're easy to kill with shotguns thats for sure

[fair gale]

Oh god

[gaunt arch]

I mean, they also didn't take 6 shells point blank to die

dangerous? Sure. But 2 or 3 well placed shells was enough

[iron grail]

Yeah all you needed was a double barrel

[elfin lodge]

Definitely want to use slugs over buckshot.

[runic condor]

even just a knife is effective against soc bloodsuckers

[gusty hazel]

CoP they could get behind you and stun lock you while they sucked blood, other than that not too difficult with a good shotgun

[hazy horizon]

I liked CS bloodsuckers better due to the fact that they couldn't receive damage if they were in their invisible form. More challenge

[brave geode]

Fun bit of new lore from HoC....

Inside of Lab X17 during the mission "A minor Incident", you walk across a ||group of dead mercs.|| The same ||group of dead mercs|| that attempted to ||kill you for the psi emitter|| located on wild island...

[gusty hazel]

What fanon has been canonized?

[unborn marlin]

I'm playing Shadow of Chornobyl and in the second dream ||with the old man and the young man who awakens with scars on his face, is that Merc Scar? Or is it Strelok? Since it's said that the man is smiling in the beginning before coming into the house bloodied.||

[livid badge]

archanomalies, superemissions, legends of the zone as a term referred to super-cool-stalkers

swamp doctor too almost (he's called swamp doctor in files but not in game)

[restive steeple]

||it's strelok post center of the zone after being injured||

||we see doctor heal him, but he's still scarred||

[unborn marlin]

thanks!

[gusty hazel]

Thank you

[opal fable]

Can someone tell me what the heck a monolithian is? Stalker 2 is my first game Ive played in the series and I have no idea what they are but they are always talked about like, idk like they are famous veterans to the zone or something

[iron grail]

Monolith was a faction of brainwashed fanatical cultists who worshipped the wish granter and defended the center of the zone with extreme violence

[spiral agate]

Cultist

[opal fable]

Ahhh gotcha. Thank you!

[spiral agate]

Or should i say

Brainwashed Stalkers

📺

[queen lava]

So to elaborate on that ||there are massive emitters set up at different places that transform regular ordinary stalkers into Monolith. ||

[waxen forge]

Fun fact they also whorshipped altars made out of piles of trash and prayed to said trash and rubble lol

[fair gale]

So is the wish granter actually real or is it just a thing the c consciousness made?

[queen lava]

It || is not real and is made by the c-con||

[solar bison]

its pretty much just ||a Radioactive Hallucination, As by the time you would reach the Wish granter the radiation would be so high you start to Hallucinate, Hence the wish’s it grants you not being real||

[fair gale]

Ah ok

[vital yarrow]

MARKED ONE, WHAT THE HELL?

[iron grail]

This is the trilogy lore discussion channel. Please go to #s2-lore-discussions for HoC spoilers

[gilded tree]

It is artificial. It throw your mind into ilusion, while your body executes orders. It is a fancy trap to force stalkers to go into exact spot in center of zone and concert them into Monolit soldiers

[gilded tree]

Some of altars have a blue psy emiters inside if them. In S2 you can destroy them

[waxen forge]

Yea i know they use the rubble and trash as some kind of antenna, but in the end of the day they gather around, and pray to trash 🤣

[restive steeple]

I mean it's probably because that's what they have easy access to

[gusty hazel]

Wrong channel, continue main story and it will unlock

[unborn marlin]

thank you

[brave geode]

New brain scorcher location makes zero sense

[ashen dust]

they were defending the fish reserves

[sick pewter]

my original msg was removed for some reason i posted reddit post from 2 years ago or something. wdym marked?

[livid badge]

Neither does new zaton location.

Trying to fit existing levels into real life exclusion zone geography is possible the worst thing they could have done lore wise.

[brave geode]

Right behind releasing the game before it was ready to be released, it is the worst thing i've seen so far. They lucky that many of the stalker 2 players have never played the trilogy

[livid badge]

Yes, it works much better as a soft reboot is what I have been saying. It is a good game in isolation, but it fails as a continuation at so many levels, ranging from poor understanding of original trilogy and its events, to abundant retcons and contradictions, to (likely accidental due to being mistaken with official material) inclusion of fanon, to very poor character writing of recurring characters. Just so many things gotten completely wrong. :(

Releasing the game early is somthing that the devs will be able to "fix" through patches and updates. Sure, we're not getting some content that we could have gotten if they cooked for few more months, but it's not going to be as rough and raw soon. But the retcons are here to stay.

[restive steeple]

I feel like locations aren't that important

in terms of actual lore, I mean

[unborn marlin]

Guys is ||the brain scorcher location where its underground really Lab X19?||

cause thats what Marked One surmised after ||Barkeep digested the X16 lab docs||

[restive steeple]

in early builds

||it's bunker 10||

[unborn marlin]

interesting

But its not || X19? ||

[unborn marlin]

Okay so it is according to a Personal Note

[livid badge]

They are. Where stuff is positioned dictates its lore. Brain scorcher blocks the path to Pripyat and Zaton, that’s why those places were unexplored before. With new positions it just does not serve that purpose anymore.

[restive steeple]

the brain scorcher blocked a lot of the zone

[livid badge]

X19 and X10 are the same location in soc. It’s called X10 in the loading menu and X19 elsewhere.

CoP and HoC went with X10 later.

[livid badge]

Sure, including those specific locations. Now that brain scorcher is on the left and Zaton is on the right, it does not serve its purpose anymore. Nevermind loners saying they saw Pripyat from Zaton in CoP.

[restive steeple]

zaton doesn't make any sense in CoP regardless

why are there a bunch of rookies in the far north of the zone

[livid badge]

And with some locations being scattered around the zone it’s even worse. Mech yard is now not on Swamps. Did Scar go to a different place to finish off renegades lol

[livid badge]

Because there is a shift in which places are accessible due to brain scorcher opening. Lots of people went north the moment it opened, including many rookies. That is explained in dialogs.

[unborn marlin]

Ooooooooooooooh Yessssss thank you!

I love this lore

[livid badge]

Either way it’s one of many HoC retcons. It’s easier to just treat its lore separately from the trilogy.

[restive steeple]

it's still stupid because the north is very clearly still dangerous

[livid badge]

People do stupid things. I find it realistic that everyone went there the moment it got accessible and the main concentration point of rookies has changed.

[iron grail]

pripyat also teleported north between games so location has never been super consistent

[livid badge]

Not really? It’s not really possible to align CoP and SoC maps with each other, and if you try to, you will do that based on Pripyat so it will be the only location that is actually in the same place.

[iron grail]

The location of Jupiter and Pripyat in CoP are pretty close to where they are in real life, including how they related to some of the other geography outside the playable area, so while it isnt explicitly stated it really only makes sense for it to have moved to where it is in real life to the northwest of the plant

Which is also where they put the city in HoC too

This is obviously debatable but I subscribe to Occam's Razor much of the time

[livid badge]

Fair assumption but for the in-game geography it would have made sense for all of those to be located to the south from CNPP still. CoP is surely closer to real geography than the previous 2 games but it still makes a fair amount of changes to them, so I would not be so sure about them moving the locations to the north.

While it is not particularly mentioned in release game, the build intro slides had Degtyarev in 100 rads bar which meant that he made his way to Zaton from the south. And the following line from prerelease intro: “As the major gets within five kilometers of the CNPP, his radio goes dead.” always made me think Zaton is to the south from the station, as it is meant to tie in to the start of the game.

While those things are obviously cut from release game and are not mentioned, they are a good indicator of developer intentions when designing the map.

[proven vale]

im new to stalker and i have a question, are the scientists that strelok killed at the heart of the Zone the ones who controlled monolith?

[unborn marlin]

Guys can we say that Stalkers use the Zones anomalies to know when someone or something are near?

Cause I just saw a stalker go alert when a Electro anomaly zapped and then nothing came down his sights and then just went back to the fireplace and starting playing guitar again

[unique token]

If you're talking about the c-consciousness scientists then yes. Theres a couple videos explaining everything

[fair gale]

Just cuz the maps changed a bit? Everything that happened in the old games happened in the same world as 2.

[opal isle]

I beat the game, the bugs were starting to really annoy me but in the last part of the game they became more and more infrequent and I was blown away by the graphics in all the ending cutscenes and the ending was great.

[hazy horizon]

if that's the case then how come Monolithians are still controlled in CoP (somewhat)? While examining the makeshift antenna found in the Bookstore, Degtyarev reports to Colonel Kovalsky that it's most likely used for communication:

"Kovalsky, something strange is going on here. There were loads of Monolith fighters inside the building. They were all in a trance and talking to... a pile of trash. I examined this pile, and if you cut through the crap it resembles a primitive antenna. It seems that someone talks to them through this antenna, and they believe it to be divine intervention."

Monolith Preacher encountered during the "Unidentified weapon" task somehow manages to counter the ambush prepared by the military and loudly thanks the Monolith for "revealing the cunning plans of your enemies to us". At the River Port, there is a Monolith Master who seems to be in a constant trance; the player can obtain a PDA from his body, and in it, it's mentioned that the Monolith communicated with him and gave him orders:

"The PDA contains many meaningless entries, but one stands out: The Monolith is communicating with the recipient of the message and ordering him to collect surplus ammunition and store it in locations unknown to the nonbelievers. These locations are to be marked with the mark of the Monolith. When difficult times come, those who hear the Monolith shall benefit from its wisdom... I have conveyed the will of the Monolith to my brothers and told them where to place the ammo..."

So it seems that someone is still communicating with Monolithians and gives them orders, despite what Marked One had done

[hazy horizon]

CoP contradicts that

[hazy horizon]

not just the map. another retcon was found by Crimson. @austere hemlock shared a screenshot of some NPC who seemed to imply that back in the day (which I interpret as "back during trilogy days") Mikluha was the founder of coupon currency, but that just isn't true to the original lore

because in trilogy lore there was already a digital currency #📸┃screens_and_videos

[vital yarrow]

You know the endgame of SoC? Twas a joke

[hazy horizon]

i'm 100% sure that there are a lot of other retcons and contradictions but my PC is too weak for S2, so can't verify

[livid badge]

I can send you S2 texts if you want so you can just read everything s2 says lol

[livid badge]

It’s not “a bit”. It changed to the point where it could not have happened. And it’s one of many many retcons.

[halcyon halo]

where is it?

[livid badge]

Some I noticed.

Non-map related:

1. PDAs on CS base mention renegades in summer 2011 even though Lebedev says they came there only after the great emission.
2. Joker and Barge are now mentioned to have died because of a guide even though CoP clearly states the reasons of their death.
3. Currency before S2 not being digital
4. Knuckles still being a loner in 2021 is impossible as cop events start with him either becoming a bandit or dying in the process.
5. Kalancha/Beanpolev is mentioned to have gone to the CNPP while in original game he stays behind (if you return to Swamps right before Limansk you will see that Lebedev is gone but everyone else is here, S2 2011 even wanted you to meet him still alive).

Map-related:

1. Skadovsk and Krug antenna complex are now on completely different ends of the map, so the entire plot of bloodsucker lair Grouse quest now makes no sense. Bloodsuckers could not invade
2. Mech yard is no longer on swamps which means that Scar had to leave swamps to finish off renegades while CS clearly says it is not possible.

Just in general try to put any path taken by any protagonist in main or side quest and what was previously a straight line is now full of zigzags

[halcyon halo]

What if an anomaly teleported all the regions around while retroactively editing everyone's memories to forget it was ever different?

(This is not a cope)

[kind saffron]

this is cope

[livid badge]

this is exactly cope, S2 was just written without any respect for the trilogy

[halcyon halo]

I just looked up a map of S2 on the internet and yeah...

It looks goofy...

[rose hazel]

a couple of csky characters get shafted eh

||Hog becomes some weak ass goon for a monolith sidekick who we cant reason with/bribe for some reason ||

||Lefty’s fcking dead, turned into a fresh zombie like he failed fixing the miracle machine sht in Clear Sky (again)||

||And of course Nimble. Why the f*ck is he a guide? Get bored of trading? or did they mean he’s one of the the only people alive who knows where CS base making him their “guide”||

At least Ganja and Wolf are just chilling where they belong. Anyone find references to Forester anywhere? does the Rostok market count?

||Also in SIRCAA was it basically confirmed that Suslov was the one who made the exosuits? if so, cool. ||

[kind saffron]

nimble is a guide in the swamp and zaton region specifically because of CS base

[halcyon halo]

Is Limansk ever mentioned outside of Clear Sky?

[iron grail]

The locations of things in the trilogy were always most suited to fit the gameplay more than anything else and S2 seems to be no different

[livid badge]

Well, CS did not retcon any of SoC. And CoP just played out in an entirely different section of the map that cannot really be compared with the original one.

Also it wouldn't work any different with positioning them the way they were originally located though. Like literally, how would S2 plot change if brain scorcher was actually on the north or if swamps were on the west? It wouldn't. It's not even done to suit the story, it's just done due to lack of respect to previous material.

[iron grail]

Yes I'm sure all these fans of the series decided to just go "screw the original games for no reason". I can't say why they decided to do what they did but that explanation does not pass a basic sanity check for me

Though I believe part of it is that they wanted the full open world zone to more closely reflect the real world location the games are based on

You can't really have both that and the original arrangements at the same time so you have to make some choices

And personally I dislike treating old lore as the inviolable word of God in any series, so this sort of thing is not that big of a bother to me

I can see why it is an issue for some though

[halcyon halo]

I don't remember strelok being a c-con agent ever being implied in CS

Wait, you mean in S2...

[livid badge]

Yes, I agree the entire Clear Sky base part in S2 is very underwhelming and feels like cheap fanfiction. The initial CS concept with ex-C-Con scientists no longer having ties with C-Con but trying to make up for their past mistakes was much more interesting. What S2 did feels like a twist for the sake of a twist.

[livid badge]

Because creators do not like to be limited with past material, it's easier to create a new story if you can change whatever you want about the world it is happening in. Working with (sometimes illogical) constraints of previous games is a challenge, which is why you don't see too many lore-friendly mods. It is no surprise the same happened to hoc.

[hazy horizon]

wack

[hazy horizon]

in S2 not sure, but in SoC and CoP i don't remember it ever being mentioned

[livid badge]

It is mentioned in cop in sokolov good ending

Obviously not in soc as devs created it later

[hazy horizon]

ahh yeah

forgot about Sokolov's ending slide

[restive steeple]

the worst

[iron grail]

Definitely a moment. Though I guess if S2 spoilers will be discussed any more it should be in the S2 spoilers channel

[livid badge]

I tried to make it vague and not mention anything in particular about the story

[iron grail]

I don't even remember if CS being ex Group members was a CS thing or if it was only mentioned in CoP

[hazy horizon]

not directly mentioned but its kinda implied in CS. Lebedev for examples knows that the Scorcher was created for a reason, and Kalancha/Beanpolev said that the Zone is man made (which could mean they left after the Zone was already created) and both of those things definitely aren't common knowledge

[restive steeple]

only in CoP is it confirmed with the picture

[iron grail]

Yeah. They are definitely evasive about some things in a way that raises suspicion too

[unique token]

I definitely could have worded it better. Monolith is a cult of sorts, despite originally being controlled/created by the c-consciousness they are devoted to the monolith. The monolith was created by the c-conceiousness to protect their physical bodies, as well ad brainwash anyone who was able to enter the sarcophagus. Even when monolithians lose connection to the monolith they still worship it as can be seen with ||faust in heart of chornobyl||. And they are desperate for any connection to their god after the marked one destroys the c-consciousness. Some may still hear voices from the monoliths fading voice, but some may also be so desperate for their god to return that they follow any orders that they may believe to be the monolith speaking to them

[livid badge]

CS only hints at that with Lebedev saying he worked at the station before and Beanpolev being aware that the creation of the zone is results of human actions. It is fully explored in CoP with Lebedev being behind the creation of Item 62 and being mentioned in the lab docs along with Suslov and Beanpolev.

Also the picture of young Lebedev yes.

But the idea was there even during CS development, it’s not like cop came and suddenly created a backstory for those characters.

[hazy horizon]

Monolith faction wasn't "originally created" by C-Con nor were they controlled by C-Con in the beginning. Monolith used to be a stalker faction before CS events (a lot of dialogues in Clear Sky tell about older Monolith, about the fact that they went deeper into the Zone and about the fact that they recently reappeared)

they were already schizo-ish even before they went to Radar

"I heard a stalker clan by the name of Monolith that was supposed to have gone missing reappeared. One day they stopped messing around, like everyone else in this place, and all made a move for the center of the Zone to look for the Wish Granter. Nobody heard a word from them for a long time, and now they're back. Thing is, nobody is all that happy to see them, because all they do is shout moronic slogans and attack everyone on sight."
― Army Warehouses Stalkers in Clear Sky

"I heard a whole faction went missing in the Zone. You ever heard of Monolith? Well, they used to protect the Zone from others, but they made a move towards the center right before the Emission. Nobody has heard from them since, but recently some real aggressive stalkers have been attacking from where the Scorcher is, killing everyone and asking no questions. I know because I saw them myself around the military warehouses, and I reckon they might be those same Monolithians who disappeared. It wouldn't surprise me, because their uniforms looked real similar." - Yantar stalkers dialogue in Clear Sky

[livid badge]

also mentioned in soc by one of bar vistiors and in cop by strider

[jolly pulsar]

im new to stalker so can someone tell me if it was ever explained why emissions only effect humans or does it effect everything differently

[hazy horizon]

Gameplaywise emissions do kill crows, lorewise its kinda unclear (in the trilogy at least). For example in opening scene of Clear Sky all kinds of mutants were running away from emission

But i personally never seen emissions killing mutants gameplaywise (with exception of crows)

[jolly pulsar]

ok so its like a nuke it basically just decimates everything (in thery)

[hazy horizon]

"A normal emission is the release of energy accumulated in the Zone, a discharge if you like" - Lebedev @jolly pulsar

[jolly pulsar]

ah ok

[hazy horizon]

"To be honest with you, there's not much to tell. Emissions are especially dangerous and almost always fatal. You can feel one coming on gradually, by the changing weather, but it passes soon after hitting its peak. At the first signs of its approach, run for the nearest cover - a cave, something made of concrete, bricks or steel... Like some others, I can feel an emission coming on when my back starts to ache. As for the nature of emissions, I don't have anything useful to tell you - I just don't know." - Pilot

[jolly pulsar]

hoc is my first stalker im probably ganna have to go play the others

[hazy horizon]

Meaning that emissions are deadly for almost everyone (with exception of people like Scar, who are affected by them differently)

But i always assumed that Pilot was only talking about humans when he talked about emissions being dangerous and almost always fatal, not mutants

[jolly pulsar]

ty for the lore

[hazy horizon]

Anytime

[hazy horizon]

If you'll decide to play trilogy start with SoC first (Shadow of Chernobyl), then complete Clear Sky and lastly Call of Pripyat

[jolly pulsar]

so is monolith a cult or are thay just crazy

[hazy horizon]

They were always schizo-ish. Even before trilogy events

CS reveals a lot of lore about "original monolith" faction

[amber copper]

man all i know is that they love a big rock lmao. I gotta catch up on the lore parts again......

[queen lava]

The later members are brainwashed due to the emitters

[hazy horizon]

Read NPC dialogues in Clear Sky and SoC PDA entries. CS dialogues about older monolith are especially interesting

[amber copper]

Doing an in-depth run of SoC currently, trying to get all the entries so i got some reading material >:)

will do the same in my next Clear Sky run after i try a speedrun on it after not having played it for about.... half a year at this point?

[hazy horizon]

This gotta be one of my favorite dialogues in general

Such an interesting lore and implications. Yantar loners talking about uniforms looking similar means that even original monolith had these uniforms and also dead bodies of monolithians around the Zone in Clear Sky could belong to original monolith

[jolly pulsar]

man im really ganna have to plsy the other games there on Xbox now so i can at some point theres alot of lore to get through

[jolly pulsar]

so is the outside world largely untouched or is stuff starting to fall apart there to

[hazy horizon]

Rest of the world is normal (relatively normal anyways) however rest of the world according to dialogues of Suslov and Beard is full of artifacts, and plus Sids sidequests in SoC also reveal interesting things about that regard

For example people using pseudogiants tails as a fur

Pseudodog* not pseudogiant

[jolly pulsar]

so not radioactive (for lack of a better term) but still affected in a way

[hazy horizon]

Basically its relatively normal and only artifacts and some mutant parts are there

[jolly pulsar]

well then

[hazy horizon]

Maybe there are also some other shenanigans going on in the big land (outside world) but due to the fact that trilogy has no info about that then i'm gonna assume that rest of the world is completely normal if you exclude artifacts and other zones trinkets being there

https://www.reddit.com/r/stalker/comments/1bit5p9/what_does_the_big_land_outside_world_knows_about/

[hazy horizon]

@jolly pulsar this post will explain everything better

[jolly pulsar]

damn

[thick owl]

Didn't they redcon the whole "artifacts outside of the zone" thing? Like that they lose their powers?

[hazy horizon]

I dunno about S2 but in trilogy artifacts losing their properties is a thing (Yars dialogue in Clear Sky. Lemme find it real quick)

@thick owl "Useful? Useful in our line of work means something that's gonna help you stay alive. That, or something that's gonna make your enemy dead. I'll tell you about artifacts. What's an artifact? It's a cluster of anomalous energy, kinda like a stock cube. There's also artifacts that can...err...what's that damn word...ah, right...ge-ne-ra-te anomalies! I think that's how Chekhov says it. Anyway, only problem is, once the artifact generates an anomaly it's as good as useless. The anomaly itself ain't exactly powerful nor does it last long, but it's good enough to delay someone or knock 'em off your trail altogether"

It doesn't specify if artifacts lose their properties specifically outside the Zone though

[jolly pulsar]

(just a theory here) but it sounds to me like thay can be used as a grenade of sorts or some kind of anomaly generater

for combat purposes

[fair gale]

So isn't the whole point of being a stalker to bring artifacts out an selling them? Wouldn't the artifacts turning off kill the purpose of stalking?

[hazy horizon]

We don't know things such as: when exactly will artifacts generate anomalies and which artifacts will generate them? Yars dialogue says some artifacts meaning that not all artifacts are capable of generating them

@fair gale another point: some people (lets say rich folks) might want to keep artifacts as souvenirs even if those said artifacts lost their properties

Besides that artifacts generating anomalies and losing properties isn't common knowledge (in the trilogy at least. Freedom and Yar knowing about that is understandable as they actually research the Zone lorewise), but theres no way your average rookie would know about information like that. I doubt that even most of the veteran stalkers are aware about it

[jolly pulsar]

so what is a stalker was it some kind of super solder program or is it more like dying lights night runners the people u go to to find something in the zone

[hazy horizon]

"S.T.A.L.K.E.R. is a coded acronym, which we use to mark agents programmed for particular missions. Your mission, as our agent, was to kill Strelok and his group. They got too close to finding out things they shouldn’t know. We created a network of psi-fields on the way to the Zone’s center in order to recruit agents. You know one of these fields by the name of Brain Scorcher. **When a stalker attempts to reach the Zone’s center in order to fulfill some wish we acquire control over his consciousness and program him to a specific mission. A mistake was made and your mission was to kill yourself." C-Con Representative

[jolly pulsar]

ahh ok

[hazy horizon]

S.T.A.L.K.E.R is a coded acronym, not to be mistaken with "Stalker". That term is used on people who are in the Zone illegally

[jolly pulsar]

oh ok so people like skif

[hazy horizon]

Pretty much. Basically everyone who entered the Zone illegally, without permission of the government are criminals according to law

[jolly pulsar]

ok

so skif isn't a s.t.a.l.k.e.r but is a stalker

[hazy horizon]

Pretty much

[jolly pulsar]

i really appreciate you explaining everything to me

[hazy horizon]

I'm just glad to be helpful

[iron grail]

Yeah. Skif is just a guy at the very start of the game.

[unborn marlin]

I have a question about SoC ending ||After denouncing C-Consciousness's request for Strelok to join, I hopped through the portals and then Strelok appears in a room with tubes like how hes put in if you choose to join. Would this be Strelok destroying the C-Consciousness subjects? And then the skies are clear and blue and land is green and there are live animals that arent mutated. Would this be The Big Land? Or just the end of the Zone? Is it even confirmed since he says "Idk where I arrived but I don't care" or something to that extent.||

[fair gale]

So like what would be the reason for like the basic person to go into the zone? Not talking criminals or mercs but just like a normal loner

[iron grail]

||I presume he is still in the Zone. What he says is about how he isn't sure if destroying c-con was the right decision or not, but it was the one he made.||

[unborn marlin]

Ooooooooooooh thank you!!

[hazy horizon]

I dunno about S2 but in the trilogy, its not really clear if Strelok actually destroyed those pods or not. Theres a theory that the ending sequence was completely or partially just a hallucination and it does make sense. The Wish Granter had a very strong influence on human mind and Marked One was exposed to it all the time, the psi-helmet wasn't fully protecting him.

The ending cutscene itself, with him lying in the grass and contemplating his choice, feels very dreamy and mystical. The Zone is seemingly gone, even the mark on his arm disappeared, this could be a mere oversight by the devs, but it could also suggest that it's all happening in his head; he imagines that he's finally at peace, all his problem are gone, but in reality he is unconscious, having his brain overloaded with psi waves, and it's all just a dream of sorts

[unborn marlin]

That clears it up a lot. I love this channel lol

[unborn marlin]

before I read your answer Im going to play CoP first lol just as a precaution

[hazy horizon]

Doesn't contains CoP spoilers dw

[fair gale]

Also with the ||c con|| gone is monolith basically a hand without a brain?

[unborn marlin]

ok reading it now

[unborn marlin]

thats a good one

I like that. Thanks for answering.

[fair gale]

Dude mightve did damage but didn't entirely take it out?

Like put the c con in a sort of coma?

[hazy horizon]

Monolith in CoP is still somewhat formidable and there are some implications of them receiving orders still

[fair gale]

From who? The c con?

[hazy horizon]

Maybe he hallucinated the entire part of shooting the capsules?

[hazy horizon]

Not clear

[fair gale]

Oh like he escaped but didn't take do any damage to the c con maybe? Just ruined it's plans?

[hazy horizon]

S2 should definitely have final answer to this tho. But since my PC is too weak for the game I can't verify

[fair gale]

Oh question. Do the books have any actual lore or are they just there? The northern passage books

[hazy horizon]

Killed a lot of monolithians but hallucinated reaching C-Con pods and shooting them yeah

[fair gale]

Maybe he shot one?

Like he shot one then the remaining c con made him hallucinate and leave?

[hazy horizon]

In any case its not really clear in the trilogy how "real" that ending actually was. Strelok in CoP also says that "people behind it are somewhere else" and I always assumed he meant C-Con scientists, since they created the Zone

[fair gale]

Like "Oh crap he got Phil! SCRUNK HIS BRAIN QUICK"

Oh and uh probably dumb question but what was the main goal of the brain scorcher? Keep stalkers away or melt their brains to add to monolith?

[unborn marlin]

I have a CS and CoS question about game elements, ||Is there a monster mutant aside from the talked about Marsh Bloodsucker in CS that I haven't taken on yet?||

I remember Inquisitor's museum in Duty's base

and there were different mutants there. And then there's the cat trophy and the 2 headed mutant head wall mount

But I never encountered those in the games.

[hazy horizon]

To keep stalkers away yes. However according to SoC scorcher is also able to turn people into monolith

[hazy horizon]

"It's all fake... The Monolith, the Wish Granter, is just a lie, a device that clouds your mind. And the people behind it are hiding out somewhere else..."

Full dialogue

Strelok himself doesn't seem to be sure about a lot of things in CoP

[hazy horizon]

Cat mutant is bayun. Afaik it appears in S2 but in the trilogy it doesn't appears for sure

[unborn marlin]

sweeet!

[hazy horizon]

SoC also has a statue of bayun, at the top of shelf near Voronin

[unborn marlin]

I remember seeing a clip from GSC I didnt think that was it since it appears so skinny in S2 compared to its chunky appearance in CS

[unborn marlin]

Yeah I think I remember it! Voronin isnt he the commander of Duty?

What about the 2 headed mutant do you know?

I know CoP has some new ones I cant wait to play that next lmao I'm so eager to play S2

[hazy horizon]

Hes leader of Duty in SoC and CoP as well. As for 2 headed mutant its Chimera. Agile and dangerous mutant that appears as an NPC enemy only in CoP

Bandits depot also has statue of chimera btw

[unborn marlin]

oh hell yeah I have a good relationship with Commander Veronin from SoC

And I know its different characters but still lol

[unborn marlin]

Oh awesome I cant wait thanks so much!

[restive steeple]

there's also multiple stuffed heads

[inland needle]

is it bad that i'm having a hard time getting into CS after completeing SoC?

[livid badge]

common experience, all games play quite differently due to changes in lead devs

there was never a single visionary for stalker series so with each new release the game vision shifted quite a lot

[restive steeple]

CS is a shift in both tone and intensity for sure

[lucid berry]

Guys why no one told Strelok he was Strelok?

[limber ether]

Is it true the zone combats duty’s efforts to get rid of it? More mutants, anomalies, etc

[hazy horizon]

Doctor and then later C-Con Representative called him Strelok. by the time Marked One finds Decoder in Pripyat he already knows that he's Strelok

"The stash contained a short report on how Fang and I infiltrated the underground galleries under the station sarcophagus and found a suspicious-looking door. Fang said that he'd put together a decoder for the electronic lock for our next visit. After that we had to run for our lives. There was hordes of Monolith patrols there. Well, I also found the decoder in the stash and directions for finding the door. However, it seems that approaching the Monolith is extremely dangerous - last time we avoided going under the sarcophagus above the destroyed reactor and it seems that's where the Monolith is." - Pripyat Stash PDA entry

notice that Marked One in this PDA entry refers to himself in first person, instead of writing "Strelok" and referring to himself in third person

[hazy horizon]

"Dislike? That's a very soft way of putting it. We have nothing in commom, and in my opinion their struggle against the Zone only leads to the Zone resisting harder. If you look at the evidence, wherever Duty begins their holy war against the Zone, mutants and anomalies only increase in number. Instead of studying the Zone and trying to find a way to coexist, Duty is exacerbating the problem. The harder they hit the Zone, the harder it hits back. If they keep it up, this will lead to a disaster and the end of us all. Put simply, Duty is a faction of your standard dimwitted jarheads, who hear nothing, see nothing and only know how to pull a trigger. We've been fighting pretty much since the moment we got here, and sooner or later only one faction will remain." - Dialogue of Chekhov

Moreover, General Krylov himself also noticed this phenomenon. He also refers to some documents found in the undergrounds, which indicate that mutants could be somewhat controlled:

"Those guys made a lot of headway in their research - they even managed to instill simple commands into the minds of animals. That's what led us to suspect that someone, or something, can control mutants. Unfortunately, all of our data confirms this theory. As soon as we burn down a mutant den, they retaliate with a bloodsucker attack or a pack of pseudodogs. The faster we destroy them, the faster they come at us. I bet this is no simple coincidence... I don't believe in repeated coincidences. There's something behind all this - I'm certain of it."

[limber ether]

Thanks for the reply! This was an awesome read

[fair gale]

I appreciate that the main character was able to deduce that he was strelok

[oak zinc]

Does the story mention Skifs past? or is he rlly just some regular ass dude whose appartment burned down so he fearlessly venture into the most dangerous place on earth and puts down like 300 people.

[hazy horizon]

Trilogy never mentioned Skif. he's a new character, not an old one

[oak zinc]

and in stalker 2 its never talked about? Havent finished yet just wondering if hes like ex military or smth idk

[hazy horizon]

i dunno about S2 lore, and my PC is too weak to run it so can't tell. but from what i've seen and heard he was just an ordinary civilian before S2 events happened

you might want to ask such questions in S2 related channels though, this one is for trilogy games

[oak zinc]

Ok thanks, thats kinda odd though for the shinanigans he gets up to as if he was professionel

[oak zinc]

oh i thought it was for ALL the lore mb and thanks

[gaunt arch]

That's actually a question I have too
What motivated Skif to go to the Zone? Like the starting cutscene shows your appartment getting wrecked by an artifact, but then, why the hell would you go to the zone? Like, bro, just find another one
From what I understood, Skif sold fake artifacts or something before the story (maybe? I haven't really understood that part)

[hazy horizon]

anomaly appeared in his house, destroyed his home entirely but an artifact remained. Skif enters the Zone alongside Hermann and his goal is to sell that artifact, but then everything goes wrong aand then the game starts

by the way, artifacts being able to generate anomalies is an interesting lore aspect even in the trilogy. Yars dialogue in CS reveals this info

[iron grail]

You learn some more details about him explicitly midway into the story, but even early on journal entries reveal a little info about him. First entry implies he is a veteran from the military who was living alone when the anomaly/artifact blew up his home and he went in search of answers and money to rebuild his life.

How such a thing happened is spoilers territory

But yes he has combat experience outside the Zone which is why he can handle himself from the get go

[hazy horizon]

Aha. That does make a lot of sense

[jolly wing]

Lore-wise, as far as the Hilka and the bear detector, which was the improvement over the other?

or were they both seperate shootoffs over the echo?

[iron grail]

I believe the bear was developed first since it was present in the older games, the hilka is a separate improvement that improves the detection range

[dusky rose]

I dont understand something idk if this is bug or not.
It is about Faust

Spoiler alert:

||I killed him in one qeest on top of some tower but then he is still alive in the clear sky old base then he disapears? Does he have some unnatural superpowers? Does he clone himself? Wtf is going on? ||

[iron grail]

#s2-lore-discussions

[noble nacelle]

helllo

i am armenian

[hasty jackal]

Ok

[velvet remnant]

He might be Armenian

[low locust]

Maybe…

[velvet remnant]

We'll never know.

[north solar]

I guess so one goes for range other for a sense of direction i personally pair the two till i get a better detector

[fair raven]

||My understanding is that he’s basically a walking anomaly that was experimented on by the C-Conciousness prior to the second disaster. But due to that he’s like a mega powerful entity and has abilities similar t that of mutants in the zone like Controllers and Psi-Hounds||.

Also massive spoiler but the less spoiler version is: ||he’s a super anomaly||

[storm flume]

Is there a video to watch so I can get acquainted with the stalker universe? Stalker 2 is my first introduction

[hazy horizon]

Screw the videos, play trilogy first (and read dialogues & PDA entries). SoC, Clear Sky, Call of Pripyat. In that order

[gaunt arch]

"A fun guide to S.T.A.L.K.E.R lore" by markos_aki in yt is a nice introduction to the world overall and the previous games

[fair raven]

I’ve been watching Anomalous Dugout

[dusky rose]

ok so this wasnt a bug thats all i wanted to know, thanks!

[median loom]

is there a endgame after you beat the game?

[patent maple]

Which one?

[hazy horizon]

you mean freeroam? only CoP has a freeroam ||but you'll be able to freeroam only if you refuse to get evacuated||

[median loom]

stalker 2

[patent maple]

Technically CS as well

This Category is for the Trilogy

[median loom]

woppsie

[hazy horizon]

that I dunno, better ask in other channels

[patent maple]

No worries, you can ask around in #☢┃stalker-general

But from what I've heard, no, no freeroam after you finish the game

[hazy horizon]

wack tbh

[patent maple]

As expected

[fair gale]

So uh is there any other lore on the brain in x16? Like how it was made?

[hazy horizon]

First disaster happened, then 30KM exclusion Zone is created to stop residents from returning to contaminated area, but even after disaster CNPP continued to operate. Power stations existence + the fact that area wasn't inhabited anymore led ministers of USSR to set network of secret labs (also known as X labs) in the exclusion Zone. Source: CoP Intro narrative. In one of the intro slides we can also see X16 as well as scientists

"No, we had nothing to do with that. **Most of us were only starting out in science back then. The Chernobyl Zone was not used as a testing site for experiments until 1989." - C-Con Representative

[fair gale]

The log about it says they used the apartment complex above to test the brain I think. Could it have been pre 06?

[hazy horizon]

Not sure about specific date but it certainly must be after 1989 since according to C-Con Rep Zone wasn't used for experiments until that year

[fair gale]

Oh wait it just says neighborhood. I guess that doesn't exactly mean it was while chernobyl was inhabited

[hazy horizon]

@fair gale another interesting thing about X16: In CoP's Research documents, that are located in X8 it is mentioned that living creatures are actually able to generate psy-emissions and that a giant brain was grown as part of the research conducted in Lab X16 as well:

"The documents refer to one of the side discoveries of the research, specifically the discovery that living creatures are able to generate directed psy-emissions. A biological field emitter, essentially a giant brain, was grown as part of the research conducted in lab X16.These documents must not fall into anyone else's hands, as they would be of great interest to USS analysts."

[fair gale]

Oh so it was a grown brain. Interesting

[livid badge]

stop using outdated english texts for reference pls

this stuff ain't canon and never has been

we do not know when c-con emerged other than the fact that it was after the first catastrophe

[patent maple]

Tsk tsk Matt

[fair gale]

I noticed the x16 Brain was called the miracle machine. Is that due to it being proof the c consciousness could be possible you think? Also do yall think that brain was aware at all in x16 or was it simply a radar?

[worthy wave]

im a little confused, who are the corps?

[wanton willow]

Anyone want to jump in a discord chat while we play ?

[hazy horizon]

EN canon

[livid badge]

no such thing

[hazy horizon]

Nah uh. EN dub is canon for those who don't play in RU dub

[livid badge]

It is not. Translation mishaps are not canon. Similarly to how you read stuff from builds and know it’s not a part of the lore, neither are differences in translation.

[hazy horizon]

How are they not part of the canon when they are literally texts in original games? And no its not similar. You're comparing buildo stuff that never made it into the games to stuff that always existed in EN dub. You need to accept that EN dub is drastically different from RU dub

[livid badge]

I mean build remnants that are in the game. Many outdated texts or references to cut ideas. There are plenty of those in release texts and they are not canon.

I am aware that they are different, but those differences are not canon. English dub is mostly canon but only official localization made by GSC is a part of game’s lore.

Any translation liberties, mistakes, usage of outdated texts = not canon. Those do not exist in original game.

[amber igloo]

summarize the trilogy in one word

[patent maple]

Based

[short mortar]

What do you guys think about the future DLCs if the game ended as it did?

[proud socket]

spoiler
question in regards towards one of the endings || so whats the deal with scars ending i get that the shinning zone was a myth or trick to string you along but like what does scar actually even do with the zone does he just kill everyone in the zone or let c consciousness take full control or just let everything carry in how it has been im kind of lost on how to interpret his ending cinematic ||

[patent maple]

#s2-lore-discussions

[proud socket]

should i just copy paste this to there or is that just the place i shouldve originally asked the question wasnt a channel i had added for some reason

[patent maple]

Yeah, this channel is for the original Trilogy. #s2-lore-discussions is for HoC

[proud socket]

thx

[abstract meteor]

The only reason I ask this is because the models look so different, but is HoC Scar the same Scar from Clear Sky? Is it explained why he's a freaking nutcase in HoC? If so you dont have to spoil it, though I am pretty far in the game now. I always gathered Scar was a very no-nonsense stalker. I think he had a sense of humor but he was generally pretty dry. Why is he now a theater kid. AND WHERE IS HIS SCAR?

[patent maple]

Again, wrong channel

[abstract meteor]

Well I mean its half about clear sky

[patent maple]

Anyways, yes, it does get explained, but kinda indirectly

[abstract meteor]

He's in both games. HoC aside, who was Scar before CS and right after? It's implied he was ||controled by the monolith at the end of CS?|| That was my interpretation. If so I guess that makes sense why ||he acts the way he does in HoC.|| Was there follow up info around in Call of Pripyat somewhere I missed?

For context I just got to Dugal in HoC so I am def asking questions that the game may answer soon

[patent maple]

Connect both the Trilogy and HoC's lore at your own risk, there are retcons that distance both from each other

[abstract meteor]

interesting. Both as in the games? or the Scars? lol

[patent maple]

In Clear Sky, he's just a Mercenary. What happened to him after the ending, we don't get explicitly told, so we don't really know

[abstract meteor]

Ah yeah makes sense

[patent maple]

The lore of HoC

[hazy horizon]

He became Charon 💀

[livid badge]

strider is charon

[patent maple]

Wacky theory

[hazy horizon]

yeah I remember Reggash telling me that earlier on Reddit

[abstract meteor]

Like those mercenaries? They were some unknown faction (to me) in CoP. Like one of the missions was finding out who hired them... was that ever revealed?

[patent maple]

Just a Merc in general, but yeah

[hazy horizon]

technically we don't know who hired them in CoP. even in their ending slide it was a mystery

[patent maple]

And it's not like every Merc is contracted by the same contractor

[hazy horizon]

we can speculate and theorize but client of CoPs mercs was never revealed, so no direct confirmation

[abstract meteor]

True, I've just always understood "Mercenary" to be a faction just like "Military" but yeah makes sense

[livid badge]

it was supposed to be one of many cop's cliffhangers explained in stalker 2. Unfortunately, after studio closure and reappearance, the new team failed to analyse old team materials so many questions of old games remain unanswered, including this one.

[patent maple]

It technically is, but it doesn't mean that they all fight for the same client

[abstract meteor]

true true

[livid badge]

There is a certain entity you meet in CoP that is never explained but was supposed to appear in S2. When GSC CMs were asked about whether it's making an appearence in HoC they replied "I don't recall ever announcing anything like that" lol.

[hazy horizon]

its over

[patent maple]

It's so Borover

[abstract meteor]

I played CoP was this some hidden side content I could have missed? What is this entity?

[hazy horizon]

horror of pripyat https://www.reddit.com/r/stalker/comments/11uu1yd/the_horror_of_pripyat_an_entity_which_you_dont/

[patent maple]

Serbin and Barchuk, most likely

[hazy horizon]

tbh the moment during the evacuation mission was probably the most suspicious and totally overlooked

[abstract meteor]

Ah okay I totally remember these events. But I thought it was just a controller no? One of the last missions in that "questline" iirc was finding the one guy and killing the controller by him. Or was that just a red-herring, or like... quick patch to replace actually explaining/implementing the "horror of pripyat"?

[hazy horizon]

Even if the controller would be responsible for the death of the other soldiers, then Rogovets' reaction is rather strange cuz the victims of this mutant don't behave in such way, because it tries to take them under control, not to scare them away

The final related event takes place during the evacuation. As described in the beginning, some kind of psi-wave strikes when the group is near the school, and the terrified Rogovets falls to his knees. As it turns out, during this event we actually witness the presence of the Horror of Pripyat, or at least, that was the devs' idea

[patent maple]

See, it's stuff like this I don't know

I'm just a guy who knows what's in the games

[hazy horizon]

i didn't either, but looking at Reggash's post it does make a lot of sense

[patent maple]

Hella

[hazy horizon]

horror of pripyat seems like it had a lot of potential ngl

[patent maple]

Aye

[urban veldt]

too bad CoP had like 3 weeks of development time

[restive steeple]

when are we getting a stalker 2: 2011 mod

[livid badge]

imagine if we actually got a solid continuation exploring previous games cliffhangers, and not ton of retcons spiced up with a bit of fan service and nostalgia bait

[livid badge]

It was red herring yes, that is explained in desdocs, it's here to confuse the player.

[restive steeple]

you should actually make that

this isn't throwing shade or anything, just try it

[livid badge]

it's no use if it's not official. fan games and mods will not be canon either way, no matter how well designed. gsc had a chance to give games a solid lore and that's what we got. :/

[restive steeple]

clearly undervaluing fan mods

people would love a version of stalker 2 closer to the original documents

It also sounds extremely fun with all the clones

[livid badge]

literally dont care about them 😎

official games only

[restive steeple]

you're missing out

[cobalt flax]

so i remember reading somewhere about a zone in afghanistan, was that a fever dream or just someone fanfic?

[patent maple]

I believe that was in Southern Comfort

https://stalker.fandom.com/wiki/S.T.A.L.K.E.R.:_Southern_Comfort

Not canon, but still interesting

Actually got the PDF right here

[cobalt flax]

it'd be cool if other anomolous zones started popping up as DLC. imagine what hotspots like somalia or south america would be like.

[cobalt flax]

gracias señor

[patent maple]

Hella

[cobalt flax]

god imagine changed snakes in the amazon, or jackals in africa

[lyric oxide]

Any penalties to killing Herman?

[livid badge]

This is trilogy channel, #s2-lore-discussions for s2

[lyric oxide]

Oh the og trilogy sorry. I’m a bit new here

Frankly new to stalker I didn’t even know it was a trilogy until a few days ago someone mentioned it.

[livid badge]

Trilogy is good, you should play it. Makes you feel all the core stuff S2 is missing.

Insane how a 15 year old series can do things better than a AAA project made by 400 people.

[patent maple]

Not really, tbh

Old games are just built differently

[iron grail]

there is definitely something to be said for the shorter development times, smaller teams, and faster iteration a lot of older games had. i guess you have that now with indie games

[unborn marlin]

omg I just saw || Strelok || in CAll of Pripyat lol

[queen lava]

||||

[sour nova]

||Kill the Strelok||

[queen lava]

|| ||

[hollow pecan]

sirgimpsalot has been warned

Reason: Bad word usage

[unborn marlin]

I did lol

Super fun

[strange holly]

All I know about the lore (as someone who has only ever played stalker 2 heart of chornobyl for about half a day) is that chornobyl went boom and then mutants came can someone pls (vaugely) fill me in

[unborn marlin]

Shadow Of Chernobyl explains it but yeah so basically ||Chornobyll NPP incident happened and then this expedition of scientists was established in Pripyat two years after that because people were evacuated there b/c of nuclear fallout from the NPP to the north of Pripyat.(And so this means they didn't have to be distracted from the fear of being caught because no one around). There the scientists experimented with volunteers who were made into a single consciousness called the C-Consciousness, a collective consciousness of 7 people joined into 1, represented by 1 spirit form/anomaly humanoid. That C-Con then in their limited power was able to order the scientists to stop their reserach, and then they were able to tap into this special informational atmospheric layer (kind of like stratosphere,etc as an example) around the planet they called the Noosphere, which through that they were able to access the mind of all living organisms capable of cognitive ability which was basically all human beings.(So we would all exist in the Noosphere because we have cognitive ability, basically all human minds are accessible and linked in the Noosphere). They had goals of removing greed, hatred, anger, all bad properties they didn't think helped the planet. Unfortunately they meddled too much and a crack happened in the Noosphere and the Zone is a visual representation of that crack as explained by the C-Conscousness. That's why the scientists were unable to explain why mutants happened only so short years after the Chornobyl NPP incident, and not in dozens of years after the Nuclear Power Plant incident, and how this Zone(short for Containment Zone established by the Military) was able to continue to expand and grow., b/c these mutants were a direct result* of the C-Consiousness messing with the stability of the Noosphere because they wanted to play God.||

[strange holly]

cheers bro

[unborn marlin]

I filled in some extra details

okay done. No more edits

[livid badge]

two years after
We do not know the date officially. 1989 is present in English localization but is not canon as it is just based on outdated texts.
7 people
We do not know the number officially either, another thing that’s only in EN localization.
represented by 1 spirit
We do not know if C-Con rep is all of the merged consciousness combined or part of it.
continue to expand and grow
We only know that it grew several times immediately after second catastrophe, after that it’s all myths and hearsay.

[restive steeple]

tldr: english version has more lore

so who cares

[livid badge]

It’s content that developers specifically considered unfit for the game when they rewrote dialogs, just that the translations haven’t been updated

[unborn marlin]

thats cool though but I'm fine with what the game provides in its current state

for English speakers

[livid badge]

Yeah, you are essentially playing a prerelease version of the game text-wise

It’s good to treat this info like cut content like many other details that did not make it into final game.

Just not something that should be seriously considered canon in lore discussions because it’s as canon as literal game builds. Just a translation mishap. Things like that happen for all sorts of games.

For SoC English loc is basically 4 months older. For CS about a month older but some details have been patched. For CoP it’s about 3 months older. Those things should just be kept in mind when discussing lore stuff

When unsure about a certain detail, you can always machine translate original RU/UA texts:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1uO46YsZ1Fznl-QDie8ciTdX6Lqanfg3pMT1uKw2T1tA/edit?usp=sharing

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1GSUspxSJ6GjSVFTSLpn3t7BIO5Gp2RuK4WyBZymNNI8/edit?usp=sharing

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/18lDG9U-6-mXeHQl1SVdRU8nZDWkPWliA4HZRwWgMAks/edit?usp=sharing

There are surely more issues with English localization. Some things are actual liberties taken by translators (“humanity must be controlled” / “would have saved you from the dreams”), there are lots of mistakes on top of that (mistranslating “made a lot of money” as “impressed a lot of chicks”) or mixing up attics and basements. But nothing beats having outdated text that literally tells a different story lol.

[unborn marlin]

interesting

[patent maple]

Thank you

[lucid solstice]

well boys here soon depending where ya live,we'll be living in the zone irl 🙂

[hazy horizon]

real

[hazy horizon]

wrong channel bro, this one is for original trilogy, better ask such questions in Stalker 2 related channels

[abstract meteor]

Is there any significance to there being seemingly very very few women in the zone?

Or was it just like... GSC forgot women exist

[restive steeple]

all the staff were men meaning they only had male voice actors

[abstract meteor]

understandable

[restive steeple]

also Steve Blum

I think that's literally it

[abstract meteor]

Makes sense, even in stalker 2 tho, I have yet to see a female stalker, and I think I've seen like 3 female npcs total

[restive steeple]

also robrt adkin dowes

[abstract meteor]

I dont like care about it lol its just an interesting observation I noticed. Like people live in the zone right? Are there farms? Where are the children?

I guess the Zone only existed for a short amount of time right? Less than 10 years or so?

[restive steeple]

people don't really live in the zone

[abstract meteor]

I thought stalkers were more or less trapped in the zone?

[restive steeple]

most of those who did left from the original disaster and most of those inside in 2006 died

[abstract meteor]

Like the IPSF dont let people out

[restive steeple]

they aren't

people still go in and out, along with any loot from inside

[abstract meteor]

makes sense

It was my understanding at least in Stalker 2 that there was some sort of border patrol in place?

I forget why

[restive steeple]

this is specifically trilogy, I have no idea about 2

[abstract meteor]

fair, I wasnt sure if that was something in the og trilogy as well

[restive steeple]

there's a specific stalker 2 chat I think

it's not, the closest there is to people being trapped is the spatial anomalies

[abstract meteor]

makes sense

on a different topic, unless I'm misunderstanding this, was it just a straight up mistake by C-Consciousness to order Strelok to kill himself in SoC?

[restive steeple]

clerical error

[abstract meteor]

Interesting

[restive steeple]

they're not very good at what they do

[abstract meteor]

I noticed lol I really like the vibe that they are not some scientific masterminds. They messed up an experiment and now they're like panicking trying to fix it

[winged lodge]

People living in the zone has been ejected

There are not people born in those place

• some stalkers talks about their family, their here for making money

[hazy horizon]

Yep, and they also mistakingly attached Ghost's photo in that task

[hazy horizon]

Trilogy mentioned women a lot of times, 1 girl Leska who was mentioned by Orest in Clear Sky even got caught at the Zones borders

But simpler explanation about why Zone doesn't have a lot of women would be this dialogue that is told by bandits at the Garbage in Clear Sky: "Which Zone are you asking about? This one? This is just a children's playground compared to some other joints I've been in. A real paradise for a thief. Barbed wire and armed soldiers? Well, that's nothing. We got our own army. Move around all you want, get unlimited packages from the outside, and get hammered all you like - it's nothing but a joyride! Only problem is - no women. They don't like it here. Sometimes I get a craving so bad that even mutants start looking hot to me..."

[abstract meteor]

lmaooo iconic line

[hazy horizon]

And this makes a lot of sense considering the fact that existence of the Zone isn't a secret by any means. People outside the Zone know about it, its just they don't know about anything that happens in the Zone itself

[hazy horizon]

Only thing we got in the trilogy is mention of international troops who got mentioned in 1 of Orests dialogues in Clear Sky

"I'm just your average Joe, no different from anyone else. I've always been a rolling stone though. When I was ten I took off for China to study Shaolin martial arts. They took us off the freightliner three days later, and my dad gave me a real good thrashing. When I got older I spent all my time travelling - hitchhiked across Europe, spent a winter with chukchas. Then the Zone emerged. At the time I was friends with one girl Leska - also a thrill-seeker, like me. Well, she thought we were friends, though I felt a little different... Anyway, one day I was looking for Leska and some friends told me she'd gone to the Zone. Right away I get my things, grab a pistol with some rubber bullets and head straight here. I made it thanks to all my travelling experience. I spent months searching for her, carrying her photo and showing it to everybody. Finally a stalker told me some international troops apprehended Leska with some pretty boy near the Zone's border. Gave the two a lecture and sent them home. So, I thought, God bless you, Leska, God bless. I didn't go back home then. And now I'm just kind of stuck to the Zone."

[patent maple]

"They don't like it there"

Most likely cause is because of the Scarlet Flower, though

Like, if people in the Zone know about it, people outside the Zone most definitely know about it

[hazy horizon]

Scarlet Flower lore

[iron grail]

That or they are simply too smart to go there

[jolly wing]

are bloodsuckers nocturnal? i feel like they should be sleeping in caves during the day and hunting at night, with combat occasionally when their lairs are disturbed by reckless stalkers.

but i think thats the lore behind the chimera

[livid badge]

wat

first of all, there's female voice actor in the entire trilogy (unless you're playing lotz), the announcer for the multiplayer

secondly, what does STAFF have to do with voice acting? while there is some temp dialog still left in release game, it's professionaly voice acted. they hired external people. it wouldn't be a problem to get a woman off the nearest theatre.

[livid badge]

people either make a quick buck and leave or die there usually. very few stay for a long time. it's not exactly a place where one build a family.

[livid badge]

outdated texts btw

or as deranged people call it, "english dub canon"

Original RU/UA texts just mention "a patrol". Nothing about it being international.

[hazy horizon]

[patent maple]

English dub has more spice 💯🔥🔥

[livid badge]

Brother you’re just appreciating cut content

Nothing wrong with it but ain’t canon

Build texts in general were more rich in detail

[restive steeple]

are you done yet

I was saying the English voice acting direction was terrible and that with very few exceptions it sounds like they just got people out of their office chairs

[livid badge]

What does English VA even have to do with why GSC did not put women in the zone? It’s outsourced. It does not play any role in decision making process

[patent maple]

CS' voice actors still better than HoC

[restive steeple]

not in SoC, you clearly haven't been paying attention

[iron grail]

Some definitely yes, some no I would say. Biggest issue with HoC voice acting is very little consistency in quality. CS at least has that.

[abstract meteor]

Was the "Duga" in the original trilogy? I forget. I know you never go there but I wonder if it was mentioned at all. Like what even is the Duga? Why is ||the monolith there in HoC||? What is that places significance?

Sorry if this is the wrong place, I didn't see an HoC lore channel lol

[iron grail]

It was not a location in the original trilogy, but it is a real radar array (though IRL it is quite a bit further away from the power plant)

[hazy horizon]

Nope. It wasn't a thing in the trilogy

[iron grail]

It was mentioned in the ARG documents for S2 but not in the trilogy I think. So it's new to the series

[abstract meteor]

So it's a radar. Ohhh interesting I just looked it up. So is the implication that ||Faust was going to use the radars to emit monolith signals at a large scale? Like to mobilize all monolith troops or like... Convert more people to the monolith?||

[iron grail]

Perhaps something like that. In the ARG docs ||It is suggested that the radar was being repurposed into a large long range psi emitter||

[livid badge]

Mini-version of Duga was present as a part of Limansk but it was never called Duga. And the Brain Scorcher was based on Duga.

Weird to have both something inspired by the real thing and the real thing on the main map but oh well

[delicate elbow]

What happened to limansk in heart of Chernobyl?

[floral ibex]

it's still there, you just can't go there because nothing of importance is there for the story, you can go to the bride in the red forest but it's been raised

[iron grail]

This is for trilogy discussion. HoC spoilers should stay in #s2-lore-discussions

[unborn marlin]

Why do Monolith like pierogis so much?

[summer mango]

I just started playing the STALKER series so to understand the storyline which one should I play first?

[hazy horizon]

Shadow of Chernobyl, then Clear Sky and then Call of Pripyat

[summer mango]

Ok and which one is gonna give me the most heart attacks?

[hazy horizon]

To tell you this then I'm gonna have to enter into spoiler territory. you better see for yourself

[summer mango]

Alr actually which one is gonna give me the most crashes

I hope none of them i don't want to download a mod and go through all that stuff

I can do it but im just lazy and then I forget how to do it

[hazy horizon]

tbh games are pretty stable. all the games crash rarely, in my experience

[summer mango]

We'll see

[hazy horizon]

always quicksave

so you won't have to worry about losing progress

[summer mango]

But what do i do with my stalker 2 gameplay? Should I finish stalker 2 first or play the other ones first

[hazy horizon]

when you enter other maps games also make hard save files

[hazy horizon]

you can finish S2 but its recommended to finish the trilogy games first. to see whats what

[summer mango]

It's alr we ball I'll finish S2 first

Then play the other ones then re play s2

[hazy horizon]

should've started with trilogy but whatever. you'd get a lot of context for S2

[summer mango]

Well I got a lot of stuff in my inventory and I haven't explore everything yet so that's why

[patent maple]

Even if HoC isn't connected to the Trilogy

[urban veldt]

Hardsave*
Otherwise you get stuck and I will have to react you with..

[urban veldt]

It would be better if it wasnt

[hazy horizon]

how often do you make hardsaves and how often do you make quicksaves?

Dunno about you Chymo but I make more quicksaves than hardsaves

[urban veldt]

My first SoC and CS playthroughs were hardsave only

[hazy horizon]

besides games already make hardsaves whenever you change the map

[urban veldt]

Hardsaves are universally better

[hazy horizon]

most of the people still use quicksaves more than hardsaves though

[urban veldt]

Heresy
I mean
I do too but I still make a hardsave every once in a while
Usually every 30 minutes

[queen lava]

I make hard saves every mission. It is a good practice to do. That helped me when playing goldsphere

[patent maple]

As of late mostly quick saves

[iron grail]

OP-2 taught me to hard save before doing anything important

Now it is just habit for me in the trilogy even unmodded

[karmic wharf]

SoC will, especially in first Agropropom mission, afterwards all Labs basically.

[summer mango]

There any way I can avoid that?

[karmic wharf]

Nope, part of the story. Just play it, you'll get used to it slightly 🙂

[restive steeple]

SoC depends

I've seen and had playthroughs go without crashes the entire time then crash 25 times in a row

[jolly pulsar]

weird question
is monolith more or less a hive mind

[patent maple]

No, as far as we know, they're still individuals

[summer mango]

What are those mutants like the bloodsucker and the invisible one that throws you things? That one is the most annoying

And there's the one that calls? Ghost to shoot you

Like what's their story or their origin

[hazy horizon]

Nothing and no one in the games imply that they have any kind of "hive mind". On the contrary, we know that each of them is able to think for themselves. The thing is, however, that all they can think about is the Monolith; due to brainwashing, their fanaticism towards it has become the only emotion they feel - they believe that the Monolith is real and that it needs to be protected from outsiders at all costs. They have no fear, they fight to the death and it's even mentioned that they seem to ignore pain:

"This place is enchanted with some really shit magic, buddy. All we do is go 'round in circles looking for our missing friends, but so far we ain't found nothing but monsters. If you get to higher ground you can sometimes hear fragments of their radio comms, but it's impossible to make any sense of them. And that ain't the half of it! How do you explain the appearance of Monolithians from beyond the Barrier? I saw one of them once. He was wounded, his eyes were glazed over and he was mumbling the same words over and over: "Defend the Monolith!" I don't think he could feel pain, 'cause he wouldn't stop trying to grab my buddy's throat until we emptied a few clips into him. What do they want? What made them come back after the Emission? I ain't got nothing but questions, friend..." - Dialogue of Hog's merc(s)

Them being able to think for themselves is also a proven fact.

PDA entry called "On the test of faith.":

"Brothers, the Monolith put my faith to the test, and I nearly strayed from the path. But I withstood! Glory to the Monolith! Its trials strengthen us! We were on our way back from the Dark Valley, and I fell behind. Evil grabbed at the opportunity and started tempting me. And... I doubted. The image of truth became distorted; the enemy whispered into my ear lies about how the Monolith uses us as slaves. But then I realized - it's a trial! I remembered the glory and the splendor of the Monolith. I regained my inner strength and my confidence. Since then I have no fear of any trials and know no doubts. Glory to the Monolith!"

[hazy horizon]

Poltergeists, but trilogy never revealed their true origins. Just some rumors in PDA entry about them in SoC