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Spinal Tapped
Join Date: Nov 2002
Location: USNY
Posts: 19,559
Rep Power: 90
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Quote:
PCG] Stalker has been 'off the radar' for some time now. Presumably there were some elements of the game that you weren't happy with last year. What were these, and how have they been changed? What is better about the game now?
Yes, truly approximately a year ago, after we've prepared all the game constituents and brought them together, we realized that there is a necessity to do a good balancing in order to achieve the integrity of game play.
Not the quality of each separate feature is really important for the player, but how all it works together, whether the game is thrilling or not. Everything has to function in order to captivate the player at the intro and don't let him go till the very end credits data. Having played the game through from the beginning to the end, we've also realized which ideas of design document have worked and which haven't. Last year was spent on improving the storyline game component because play tests have shown us that the abundance of simulated and random tasks often led the players into the dead corner. Now we've achieved a good balance of storyline events, which lead you through the game, and random tasks and events that fill up the game world and give the opportunity to obtain many rare items and money.
[PCG] Was it simply one aspect of the game that caused a lot of trouble to balance - the blowouts, the AI? What was the problem, and what have you done to fix it?
It's hard to pick out a specific feature. The complexity for us is in the necessity to build up a large amount of features, which will therefore compile into an integral game play. Truly great AI was a particularly difficult task. As we have not only combat AI, which is responsible for "action" part, but a global AI as well - this is a simulation of life that ensures the life of all living creatures in the Zone and the events. We were striving for a qualitative step forward as opposed to scripted AI, and we achieved it. Even a standard "action" scene can be played differently and can be tried different tactics over - AI will always act with accordance to your actions.
We spend most of our efforts on AI, and hopefully the players will appreciate the result.
[PCG] According to the original story, something strange happens in the Chernobyl reactor on April 16 2006. That's this Sunday! Will you be changing the story, pushing the date back a couple of years?
No, the story won't be changed. April 16th, 2006 is the date when something happened in the Chernobyl zone, something that certain authorities are deliberately trying to hide from the rest of the world. The year of 2006 is the year of the Zone's birth, the moment when it began to spread out. I would like to remind that the player appears in the Zone only in 2012. And so the year of 2006 is a hidden beginning of our story and the world will learn what is really happening inside the Zone only by 2012, right when the game will be released (j/k J).
[PCG] One of the reasons why the game is so exciting to us is that the real world seems to be continuing pretty much as normal outside the Chernobyl area. Is that correct? Will you hear much from the rest of the world, and have much contact with normal (non-Stalker) people? How does the rest of the world impact on the player?
The Zone is isolated from the rest of the world both from inside and outside. Numerous military patrols along its frontiers block any attempts of stalkers, mutants and certain undisclosed forces to break out from it. That's why the player will travel solely within the Zone territory and deal just with those who are chanced to happen to find themselves inside for some reasons.
[PCG] Does the player ever leave the zone?
No, the player won't be able to leave the Zone.
[PCG] Does The Dealer, the first guy you meet, play a significant part throughout the game, or is he simply your starting point? Can you tell us a little more about his background? What does he mean to the player?
The Dealer is the first person the player contacts in the Zone. He is one of many traders within the Zone, but he has a characteristic feature. His location at the Zone's frontier maintains specific relations with the military cordon and he has external contacts, through which he receives provision, equipment as well as the tasks for stalkers. The Dealer is cynical in his own way; he has doomed many stalkers to death but yet many people in the Zone depend on him for it is impossible to stay alive there without food and equipment.
It is the key character in the first part of the game, he will assign tasks to the player (including the storyline ones), and you inevitably return to him from time to time when you have run out of equipment or after an accomplished task. Sometimes he will reveal important information, crucial both for the story and game progress.
[PCG] What about our own character? Is his personal history important to the game or the plot? Do we learn anything about him as the game progresses?
This is a person without the past, one of the survivals from the "death trucks". From time to time, strange trucks appear in the Zone; they are filled with dead and, occasionally, live stalkers; their memory has been erased, and they always have a "S.T.A.L.K.E.R." tattoo on their body. Stalkers call them "the branded ones". At times they are recognized as vanished Zone's veteran-stalkers, at other times they are just obscure characters, like the main hero. What happens in the Zone with the disappearing stalkers, what the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. tattoo means and many other mysteries are in for the players to clear them up together with our hero.
[PCG] Tell us about how the PDA functions. Does it help you to remove interface elements from the normal view, allowing us to become more immersed in the game? In addition to keeping track of missions and maps, what else does it do?
PDA is a multifunctional and handy device which can be used to stay in touch with the key characters of the game. It will contain the most essential information obtained throughout the game, which will include a diary of the main character, as well as info on the stalkers in the contact zone, Zone map, constantly refreshing rating of stalkers in the Zone, player's statistics, frequently extending encyclopedia and many other stuff.
[PCG] What are the physical effects of radiation? Does your vision or physical ability become impaired?
If the player walks for a while in the areas with high radiation, an image on the screen becomes unclear and gradually loses its color. With continued exposure, it starts to be flashing in the eyes. After the player leaves the area with high radiation, the problems with the eyesight disappear. Depending on the degree of irradiation, the player starts to lose health, until he lowers the level of radioactivity in his organism. Or until he dies.
[PCG] Does your radiation level increase simply by walking around in the zone, or through touching/being near irradiated objects?
The main threat for the player is caused by radioactive dust. Therefore, it's possible to receive a great dose of radiation by being near to the contaminated objects such as dumps of radioactive garbage are. There are also places in the Zone where the perilous hotbeds of radiation occupy vast areas, so the player should try not to linger there for too long.
[PCG] Do you drink vodka to lower your radiation level? Does this mean you can also get drunk?
Yes, vodka is one of the methods to get rid of the radiation. Of course, this approach to the issue has its drawbacks. For example, having drunk too much, the player begins to stagger; losing part of control over the character, thus shooting in such condition is problematic. However, perhaps even in this condition it can be possible to acquire skill in hitting the bull's-eye.
[PCG] Please help us explain to our readers what it will be like to play Stalker. Are there various people inside the zone who ask you to carry out missions, and can these be carried out in any order you like? Or is there a strict story at work? Can you talk us through a specific mission - something that illustrates the choices available to the player?
The player will have to have a journey through the world of the Zone, which locations are combined into one global map. He can choose any route and will not be constrained to move from one location to another. The player follows the storyline, accomplishing obligatory plot tasks, secondary ones, and can also be engaged in the Zone's investigations and fulfilling random tasks.
The game implies an intense economical part. Stalkership is not an easy way to go, in Zone you're outlawed, and the surrounding world is hostile. In order to survive, you'll have to earn money searching and selling artifacts, various scientific trash, killing the Zone's mutants, and even performing missions to eliminate other stalkers. And for the proceeds, it will be possible to purchase equipment, weapons and protective suits, which will enable the player to penetrate the areas inaccessible earlier.
The game world will involve different characters' groupings, each with its own goals and motives: these are numerous bandits, stalkers of different ranks, groupings members, military stalker, scientists and traders, unique characters and heroes.
Several grouping are initially hostile towards the player, the others - are neutral. How many friends or enemies you gain during the game depend solely on your actions. Your actions will influence on the attitude of the faction to you. Good attitude will avail in reducing prices. Your actions will as well have an effect on the end of the game.
The game has both simple missions and complex quests, where the player's variant of solution will entail particular consequences in future, like changing of the factions' attitude towards the player.
Let me describe a mission at the abandoned military warehouses as an example. So, starting points is: The level has the old abandoned military warehouses with the Freedom faction settled there. This is the central base of Freedom, which is well protected and heavily guarded. Duty faction is the main enemy of Freedom, but it's members have found the base and prepare an assault. The Duty squad is hiding not far away from the store ready for the attack. The player appears on the level with a rather simple task - find RG-6 (a weapon). Searching for RG-6 will bring the player both to the Duty faction detachment and to Freedom's base. The player will have a choice to make:
- accept the offer from Duty and storm the Freedom's base together with the group
- tell Freedom's leader about the imminent assault and participate in Freedom's attack on Duty's squads
- set both factions on to fight and try to eliminate both of them
There is a wide selection of the following actions to make and of ways to carry out the task.
[PCG] To what extent is the game's world divided into 'levels'? Will we notice when we move between loading areas (like in Oblivion)? Or are these areas geographically divided by bridges, tunnels, etc.? Will quests/missions cross areas? Having a big area to run around in sounds cool, but can you explain /why/ it's cool? Why's it so important?
The game world consists of locations-levels, the average size of one location is 1x1 km, and all the levels are combined into one global map. When the player goes to another level, the entire level is being loaded. Level changing spots are implemented as the roads, tunnels, bridges etc.
Accomplishment points of some missions are distributed among multiple levels. While the player is fulfilling this task, he can digress to local minor ones.
In the beginning the player is limited in his movement throughout the Zone over the lack of special equipment, which can afterwards be bought for the money earned.
Large areas produce an impression from the game world, not from the set of small location-corridors. As mentioned before, the game levels will contain obligatory storyline tasks, fulfilling which makes the player move from point to point, from task to task. If you want to play only through the plot line - that's okay. You can do it. At that you won't visit 60% of the game's territory. But if you'd want to dig deeper and go in for exploration or accomplishing random tasks - the game also may give you this possibility. Large areas also enable going through the scenes in different ways - you can either try to attack from different sides, use opportune height or avoid the battle.
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http://stalker.myexp.de/forum/viewtopic.php?p=59527
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One Big Ass Mistake America
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May 28, 2006, 12:15 PM
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