More than two years after 1.4.22 and one and a half years after 1.5 R6, it is most certainly time to explain what has been going on.
A bit of story time first about what am I even doing and how did I end up here. All the way back in May 2017, I was digging around the Bitbucket repository and found a mirror leading to the in-development version. After playing around with that for some time, I started reporting bugs and other issues. Seeing how some were not resolved, I decided to make some changes myself. Right around this time it was already August with the release of the first 1.5 beta versions and me digging around in the game, having all kinds of ideas. This lead to the last version of the original 1.5, R4. After that, things changed. I was suddenly part of the team working on gameplay balance related changes, which can be seen in a horrible state in R6. Here is where everything went wrong. It turned out later, that I joined in either the best or worst time. Development was right about to be stopped by Alundaio, who didn't want to work on the mod anymore. With me joining, I became the fresh source of power, trying to keep going. It was going fine for a surprisingly long amount of time, but then nearly everybody had to take longer and longer breaks. What I did in the end is completely ruin the development by going off track, trying to completely redo major parts of the game.
All that lead to the current state. Development paused back in the end of July 2018 with some small activity spikes up until around October. I took my own long break, also waiting and hoping people will come back. Without team lead and our C++ programmer, I tried to change the engine under the mod with the help from a Russian team, to one that uses mid July 2018 Open X-Ray as a base, which is 64 bit. It wasn't very successful to say the least.
So, what next? Well, the mod needs manpower in order to be continued. Mainly C++ and LUA programmers, but anything helps, even writers and good QA. If you can help, leave some information about what you can do in the comments. If you know someone, please send them our way.
Update: I can no longer promise any activity from my end. After many years with stalker, I have to start making major changes in life, which will not leave enough time for a project this big.
The last in-development builds: 32 bit from October 2018 | crashy 64 bit from February 2019
Thanks to everyone for your patience and support!
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Yet another mod gets ****** by retarded unnecessary drama and laziness. Oh well, back to ANOMALY.
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Lol yes
You don't want to know how bad the state of the teamwork is there.
Laziness? You realize that people do mods in their free time? They dont have any obligation or contract. They do it all FOR YOU for free.
But there is something called real life where you have family and work, you think that mod will pay taxes and give food to family? No, thats why people stop doing mods without any explanation, because there are more important things that stalker modding that is still one of worst community you can get, because everyone demand something and players dont even bother to support modders or even rate their work, they always just want more...
Also you can run to Anomaly but you think that its so amazing?
You have 2 people who do actual work, and just one do more than half. You have one person that is everywhere and talk all the time but dont do anything, and you have one person that just play there with its own toys... Really perfect team...
Also I need to remind that most of stuff in Anomaly is copy/paste from CoC? Without CoC Anomaly would be just another lame compilation that try too much to be Dead Air for kids
Ehm akinaro why do you aim for anomaly whenever you have a chance ? Everytime I see your comment you are posting something against it. And since you quit with modding you have know right to throw
garbage to everything ? Make up your mind next time you try to post anything people dont want to constanly see your crying comments cheers
And skip the part I take care of anomaly discord this is just my perosnal view
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Aim for Anomaly? Are you serious? This is only mod that I actually recommend to anyone...
Also who told you that I quit modding?
I just quit doing stuff for Stalker, beside GoohS mod...
Right now YOU are crying that someone dont have the same opinion as you, so chill out a bit.
Compared to others I actually do stuff instead of just talking and demanding something so I have more rights to post my opinion than others. You dont like it? Dont read it, its simple as that.
Anomaly its a great mod, with Misery implementation and many features, maybe have a bug, maybe its just a combination of the mod, but is 64bit, have good perfomance, and don't crash, and still in active development! yes I'm serious; also, Anomaly use CoC like many others, also, Call of Misery, Anomaly, Dead-Air, Road to the North... all team know CoC base, and can help to solve any problem; obviously CoC team dev need coders (but I think this other teams know coding, why for modding need coding). I think the problem is the disorganizzation, many mega-mods are similar; think to regroup all dev team in just one and you have an more active still dev
Amen brother, amen!
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Either focus on something or don't do it at all. Obligation has nothing to do with it. They keep teasing stuff (just like you did) and then they go silent for months only to 1 day admit they stopped working on the mod long ago and we have been waiting for no reason. You have no obligation to finish a mod but don't expect me to still respect you after you quit.
"there is something called real life" is the most pathetic excuse I hear. I work 9 months away from home but when I'm back I don't just sit on my *** all day. I fix **** around the house and help buddies with their own work. They don't quit modding because they have no time, they quit because they get bored and care more for their own comfort than the community.
JohnHighway Who would ever thought that modders might lose interest one day and mind their other, more important business?! Shocker.
I know i am a year late but i almost fell out of my chair laughing you are way to hostile why don't you lighten up a bit pal now i know if you see this there is a chance you will find some quick comeback to strike back at me :D but just know i don't give a crap i cant stand people who think they can be a jerk even though a mod doesn't have any news for a long time does not mean its dead like i said i am a year late but hey i just had to say something :)
Oh well, back to the mod that originated from Call of Chernobyl (and from Last Day :DDDDDD).
Another dufess thinking they know everything. . . .
big truth
Mass hate even though it is sadly true.....
Imagine how miserable it must feel to be bitching and moaning about a mod people are working on with absolutely no compensation.
What a dreadful existence that must be.
I have to imagine that the guy bitching about A FREE MOD not coming out is in every respect like Comic Book Guy from The Simpsons.
I hope you guys get the help you need, at least to push out a fully official and stable 1.5 build. Best of luck!
Your work is commendable, Balathruin. Did you manage to incorporate the text fixes I sent?
It has been included in the x64 builds with the exception of the guide changes. Waiting for Darryl to push his update.
People aren't paid to mod, unfortunately. Doing free work for such an amount of time is unreasonable to expect, considering we live in a world of money. Yet TeamEPIC did just that. Stalker veterans who'd already been modding the game for years banding together to create something worthy of modders, players and industry folks' attention.
Of course, its a shame that they grow weary. We all love Stalker and CoC and want more. But with their creation, modders now have a very viable foundation to work upon and improve further. I doubt this is the end.
Big thanks to all the good folks of TeamEPIC and their associates from our English speaking Stalker community.
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We don't need to live in a world of money, there are people out there that are trying to make the world free of money, search for "The Venus Project". They're looking for in a sense modders, programmers, designers, etc.
Modders do what they do freely because they love the game and/or modifying things in general. STALKER is absolutely a gem polished by numerous modding teams and soloists alike. I hope this game and mod continues to see improvement in the future.
That's some cult **** my dude.
oof :(
There are people who mod the mod, so maybe they will join from modding the mod to work on the mod.
Yup, modders go, modders come. The beauty of the modding community is that their work is never done. There's always someone new willing to carry the torch. Maybe it will be me, you never know.
Since you asked, unfortunately, I don't really have any experience where it probably matters most, coding and development proper. However, I'm able to to serve as a QA tester and writer. I have experience participating in early access / alphas / betas of various Steam games and mods and making bug reports. I like to think I've got a pretty in-depth understanding of the STALKER lore, and a lot of experience playing RPGs, so I'm fairly confident I can be a good writer as well. Sorry if this seems really flashy, but he did ask.
Little help with an objects(dynamic also) in 3ds max, any job in the SDK, help with a configs. If you need make any job with a routine work in SDK or help with a NPC's logic, call me.
Sorry, my English is very Russian. Well, if you need help, you give me a task (You give me a task, and I say I know how to do it or not. I just don't want you to make any mistakes because of me. I'll only do what I can), and i try to complete him. An example of my "vasyan" job (single CNPP)
Vk.com
Very cool! Always a fan of combining two halves of a level like the NPP or Pripyat.
Thanks, bro.
That would be great. I kinda forgot about the issues on that end, but if we get there, I'll definitely reach out to you.
Ok. I remember that you want do a level from the "builds of stalker", that is Darkvalley, as an example i can help you with it. Or that animated switcher (17th second) Vk.com, if you need something, i can give you that. CoC is the great mod and means a lot to me. My objects - your objects.
I'm happy to continue writing and providing QA for CoC, Balathruin. I'll continue to post it in the dev forum unless you have a preferred location.
Posted some over at the forum. If anyone has further ideas or topics for writing and dialogue let me know.
I don't care what anyone says, you're my favorite red panda.
Thank you very much for the best modification of a game I've tried ... Thanks for your time and effort and I hope everyone joins your team that you deserve it, and you can earn some money in retribution ... From Junin, Argentina !! A stalker of light
SOMEBODY CAN ANSWER ME BECAUSE NIMBLE DOES NOT SELL ME THE EXOSKELETON HAVING ALL THE MONEY AVAILABLE, NEVER ME REACH .... I WANT TO HAVE THAT SUIT !!!
I'm not very expert modder (and I'm amatorial - a bit - progammer)...
and at moment I play from Arch Linux, ergo I'm not the best for solve big problems or change many things in game. at moment for myself I modding a bit Road to the North, just it
and, also I'm still alive in real life :)
I'm was quite ****** about the communication regarding the progress because I decided to develop a mod based on CoC. I was waiting all the time about some hint or anything else what is going on, what the progress is and so on.
Now I'm reading this and I'm feeling a little bit bad about being mad...
I can do some scripting, texturing, audio and and story telling stuff... but sadly I can't provide any help to you will need right now as it seems.
Try to get the last version stable... there are so many good things in it and I personally like the r6. I had more problems with the 1.4. Good luck guys!
Your a saint man I hope this continues because CoC is a great mod with many spin offs and it would be sad to see the base for it completely die out when the future looked so great for this mod.
СоС это классика, жаль что я не шарю, желаю кдачи
I'm very sorry to hear that. If anyone can understand your situation it is MDT members. Quite a lot bad things happened in personal real lifes of various mod members. What was initialy planed to be 1-3 month work turned out to be 2 years to release MISERY 2.2.
Near the end of release there was only handful of people active, even folks who were initialy only tested things started to make some less complex but modifications. Not complex, but quite tedious and time consuming tasks, so such things were not less worthly than other people tasks.
It is noone faults, real life force people to drift in different direction, for various reasons, quite a lot are very private reason that should not be talked about in public.
I was also very short on free time and 2.2. was slightly rushed to release, otherwise might not be relesed at all. Still providing small support if I can, but currently, can't offer much help to other moders. Time will tell if and when I would be able to provide more help to stalker community.
Well, any information is better than none. I can help in the QA department. I've been a participant in Alpha and Beta sessions of AAA titles, most recently Anthem, Battlefield V and The Division 2.
Thanks for the update on the State of the Mod. Keep up the good work!
Can you talk a bit more about the work you're looking for a C++ programmer to do?
There are currently two very different versions of CoC compatible engines. The original made mainly by Alun: Github.com
And another one based on mid July 2018 Open X-Ray 64 bit: Github.com
The second went through some adventures for sure, it switched developers quite a bit.
The point is, both versions have different problems. Currently the original is more stable but has some weird and annoying bugs, while the latter has almost none of those, but crashes more often. So the focus is fixing the issues and hopefully only change what is necessary.
What happend with Alun?
My guess is he hit a huge wall with the xray engine and with no help and not getting paid lost interest. Its the only logical explanation i can come up with.
AFAIK lost interest, but at least he's working on his own project.
The way JohnHighway sounds like he is hiding his true feelings in that he wanted to see this mod reach full fruition and is just extremely displeased it hasn't reached it because of internal matters. Balathruin, how ever long it takes you and whomever takes on the challenge, I wish you guys all the luck in the world.
It's a shame CoC got to this point considering how influential and important it was for STALKER modding. Thankfully, lots of modders took it and evolved it into other things, like Anomaly. No matter what happens, CoC's impact will always be felt.
And we will always be able to play 1.4.22, which is stable and full of content with the many addons.
Hopefully things get better for CoC. If not, raise your vodka, take out your harmonica, and cheers to a legendary mod.