Just a little update, we have a ModDB page up:
http://www.moddb.com/mods/lurk/
Check it out, tell us what you think.
Thursday, May 28, 2009
Wednesday, May 20, 2009
Established Full L.U.R.K. Description
L.U.R.K.: Overhaul
Description:
The purpose of L.U.R.K. is to create features, and take pre-existing features from other mods deemed positive, and merge them as well as completely overhaul every aspect of them in order to create a balanced and rewarding experience. Much effort was put into preserving and improving the original atmosphere and balance of Vanilla Stalker, while adding more gameplay elements to the formula. Although we're nearing our first release, we've been consistently adding and changing features based on community input at our discretion. We're working hard to create the definitive Stalker experience.
This mod was founded and being developed from the 4chan /v/ and /k/ community.
Please note that your support and suggestions are important to this mods success and completion. We're always looking for input from the community, and we wish to emphasize that by all means necessary.
Website:
http://getoutofherelurker.blogspot.com/
Images:
Cordon Album:
http://s671.photobucket.com/albums/vv73/4chans_Stalker_Mod/Cordon/
Dark Valley Album:
http://s671.photobucket.com/albums/vv73/4chans_Stalker_Mod/Dark%20Valley/
Garbage Album:
http://s671.photobucket.com/albums/vv73/4chans_Stalker_Mod/Garbage/
The Bar Album:
http://s671.photobucket.com/albums/vv73/4chans_Stalker_Mod/Bar/
Current Team-Members:
Holden: Project Lead/Production Lead
Giegue: Weapon Ballistics/Weapon Balance/NPC Configurations/Input
Psychosonic: Special Thanks and Support/Input
Nkatyusha: Skinning/Input
John: Various support requests/Input
Vlad: Various support requests/Input
Features:
Vast array of weapons select from many different modifications, including brand new reskins
Note: Various weapon skins were changed in order to maintain quality and consistency
(BACL, Gosuke, Holden)
Overhauled weapon ballistics, better suited for balance and scaling
Note: Realism was noted for scaling, however it wasn't the staple. Gameplay and balance were the primary concerns.
(Giegue, Holden, Vlad, PLR)
Entirely overhauled smart terrains, monster spawns, and NPC spawns
Note: Smart Terrains dictate the area that NPC's and Monsters can traverse
(DC)
Overhauled in-game economy
Note: Emphasis was put into funds, suit gifts are now nonexistent
(Holden, Emporikon)
Overhauled NPC and Monster balance
(Holden)
Minimalist, opaque HUD interface
(Holden, Darius)
Realistic actor parameters, everything from speed, carry limit, to headbobbing and weapon sway
(Holden)
New grass sprites and grass placement from Clear Sky
Note: Clear Sky increased the grass sprite variety and grass density, as well as distance to a considerable degree
(GSC: Clear Sky, Holden)
New color mapping for every level
Note: Color mapping is what gives terrain variety and diversity, as well as reduces the visible tiling effect from ground textures
(Holden, BACL)
Screen Space Ambient Occlusion, Steep Parallax, Improved HDR, Stronger Shadow Contrast, etc..
(Sky4CE)
Overhauled weather system, randomized, dynamic weather structure, saturated sunrises and sunsets, rich shadow contrast etc..
Note: Weather wasn't created under the concept of realism, rather aesthetics and gameplay
(GSC: Clear Sky, ArtistPavel, Trojanuch, Holden, Argus)
Overhauled AI structure, including dynamic light visibility parameters, flanking capabilities, medkit usage, dragging corpses etc..
(Holden, Xtream)
Improved monster textures, bumps, and specularity
(Argus)
Overhauled audio
(imperialreign)
Overhauled weapon orientations
(Holden, Vlad, John)
New textures for nearly every surface, a composite of Clear Sky and Photorealistic Zone
(GSC, Argus, Holden)
New character model textures, icons, etc..
(Holden, JakeyB)
Various bugfixes
(Decane)
And many more features implemented from our team and other modders
I apologize in advance for any miscrediting/lack of crediting in the features, and I implore you to correct me whenever possible
Description:
The purpose of L.U.R.K. is to create features, and take pre-existing features from other mods deemed positive, and merge them as well as completely overhaul every aspect of them in order to create a balanced and rewarding experience. Much effort was put into preserving and improving the original atmosphere and balance of Vanilla Stalker, while adding more gameplay elements to the formula. Although we're nearing our first release, we've been consistently adding and changing features based on community input at our discretion. We're working hard to create the definitive Stalker experience.
This mod was founded and being developed from the 4chan /v/ and /k/ community.
Please note that your support and suggestions are important to this mods success and completion. We're always looking for input from the community, and we wish to emphasize that by all means necessary.
Website:
http://getoutofherelurker.blogspot.com/
Images:
Cordon Album:
http://s671.photobucket.com/albums/vv73/4chans_Stalker_Mod/Cordon/
Dark Valley Album:
http://s671.photobucket.com/albums/vv73/4chans_Stalker_Mod/Dark%20Valley/
Garbage Album:
http://s671.photobucket.com/albums/vv73/4chans_Stalker_Mod/Garbage/
The Bar Album:
http://s671.photobucket.com/albums/vv73/4chans_Stalker_Mod/Bar/
Current Team-Members:
Holden: Project Lead/Production Lead
Giegue: Weapon Ballistics/Weapon Balance/NPC Configurations/Input
Psychosonic: Special Thanks and Support/Input
Nkatyusha: Skinning/Input
John: Various support requests/Input
Vlad: Various support requests/Input
Features:
Vast array of weapons select from many different modifications, including brand new reskins
Note: Various weapon skins were changed in order to maintain quality and consistency
(BACL, Gosuke, Holden)
Overhauled weapon ballistics, better suited for balance and scaling
Note: Realism was noted for scaling, however it wasn't the staple. Gameplay and balance were the primary concerns.
(Giegue, Holden, Vlad, PLR)
Entirely overhauled smart terrains, monster spawns, and NPC spawns
Note: Smart Terrains dictate the area that NPC's and Monsters can traverse
(DC)
Overhauled in-game economy
Note: Emphasis was put into funds, suit gifts are now nonexistent
(Holden, Emporikon)
Overhauled NPC and Monster balance
(Holden)
Minimalist, opaque HUD interface
(Holden, Darius)
Realistic actor parameters, everything from speed, carry limit, to headbobbing and weapon sway
(Holden)
New grass sprites and grass placement from Clear Sky
Note: Clear Sky increased the grass sprite variety and grass density, as well as distance to a considerable degree
(GSC: Clear Sky, Holden)
New color mapping for every level
Note: Color mapping is what gives terrain variety and diversity, as well as reduces the visible tiling effect from ground textures
(Holden, BACL)
Screen Space Ambient Occlusion, Steep Parallax, Improved HDR, Stronger Shadow Contrast, etc..
(Sky4CE)
Overhauled weather system, randomized, dynamic weather structure, saturated sunrises and sunsets, rich shadow contrast etc..
Note: Weather wasn't created under the concept of realism, rather aesthetics and gameplay
(GSC: Clear Sky, ArtistPavel, Trojanuch, Holden, Argus)
Overhauled AI structure, including dynamic light visibility parameters, flanking capabilities, medkit usage, dragging corpses etc..
(Holden, Xtream)
Improved monster textures, bumps, and specularity
(Argus)
Overhauled audio
(imperialreign)
Overhauled weapon orientations
(Holden, Vlad, John)
New textures for nearly every surface, a composite of Clear Sky and Photorealistic Zone
(GSC, Argus, Holden)
New character model textures, icons, etc..
(Holden, JakeyB)
Various bugfixes
(Decane)
And many more features implemented from our team and other modders
I apologize in advance for any miscrediting/lack of crediting in the features, and I implore you to correct me whenever possible
Tuesday, May 19, 2009
L.U.R.K. AI Demonstration
Monday, May 18, 2009
Updated Weather Patterns
Your voice has been heard, and as a result, I've implemented the dynamic weather system from Weather Overhauled 3.0. I'm still using the base weather configuration from what you've seen from the screenshots, but I've made it so that the Weather Overhauled rain cycles that have shadow contrast are available, and they're now randomly dispersed throughout the day, and far less common then in standard Weather Overhauled. I'm also using the distant skybox landscape textures when the cloudy weather and fog isn't obscuring them by the way.
Rest assured your complaints are being heard, I've reimplemented artifact effects as an optional feature in the installer, however I'm still listing no effects are recommended in order to preserve balance and difficulty scaling. Previously I had temporarily disabled overcast weather due to it being asslike in appearance, so I've put alot of work into finding an aesthetically pleasing method of reimplementing it, without overusing it.
For now the sleeping bag has returned with effort being put forth towards balancing it. The hunger aspect does nothing to slow this, so I'll be implementing a feature that prevents sleeping within a certain range of hostiles.
Here are some images depicting the new rain cycles, I'll take more when I have the time:
Screen 1
Screen 2
Screen 3
Screen 4
Screen 5
Rest assured your complaints are being heard, I've reimplemented artifact effects as an optional feature in the installer, however I'm still listing no effects are recommended in order to preserve balance and difficulty scaling. Previously I had temporarily disabled overcast weather due to it being asslike in appearance, so I've put alot of work into finding an aesthetically pleasing method of reimplementing it, without overusing it.
For now the sleeping bag has returned with effort being put forth towards balancing it. The hunger aspect does nothing to slow this, so I'll be implementing a feature that prevents sleeping within a certain range of hostiles.
Here are some images depicting the new rain cycles, I'll take more when I have the time:
Screen 1
Screen 2
Screen 3
Screen 4
Screen 5
Sunday, May 17, 2009
Major Update #2
The results are in, and the following weapons have been added from Super Mod Pack:
-Mosin Nagant (This is old news, and I added it before anyways, after a reskin and new orientations)
-Raging Bull
And that's it. All the other ones either had poor animations, poor models, poor textures, or just didn't fit in with the game (See Vulcan Chaingun).
Stalker needed a good Bolt-Action Rifle, and a Revolver never hurt nobody. It hurt to watch the MP40 and the STG44 go, I really would have liked to see bandits carrying WW2 era weapons, but they were too poorly implemented. I'll probably reskin them and re-animate them after the base release, or when I have time to work on new features instead of balancing current implementations. Expect to see a release soon, the weapon loadouts are being worked on at the discretion of my good friend Giegue, and bugfixing and other balance issues are being worked on.
Just recently I've been fixing crashes related to NPC drop probabilities, and overall trimming for performance. The AI has undergone a complete overhaul, creating a dynamic visibility threshold, which makes NPC's detection variable to lighting conditions. During the night, or even during the late evening, you can L.U.R.K (couldn't resist) in the shadows from enemy NPC's without being detected.
NPC's no longer have a static visibility threshold, which was completely retarded to begin with. This entails NPC's detecting you regardless of circumstance within a certain radius, which was, get this, 15ft in Oblivion Lost and Vanilla. Now the knife has newfangled possibilities, with no sound being emitted from stabbing your knife, and NPC's not spotting you automatically.
NPC sound detection has completely changed, NPC's no longer have super-sensory hearing, and they can't distinguish your footsteps from allied NPC footsteps anymore, making flanking maneuvers a possible, and often necessary tactic now. If you were to fire a weapon, and maneuver around a box, it's possible to knife an NPC while they're in alert status, remaining undetected.
Work has even undergone to fix Vanilla NPC bugs, NPC's can now detect flashlights, and the "look at the sky and walk forward" error has also been fixed, as well as many different problems regarding AI. This was merely a sound detection error, for instance an NPC heard a noise in the distance and they became fixated upon it, often regardless of your interference. However little testing has been done so I can't say for sure whether or not this has been fixed.
The latest edition of aLive, version 1.6 has been implemented into Stalker. Oblivion Lost utilizes version 1.4, and subsequently raped the shit out of it with retardedly high blowout triggered monster spawns, resulting in packs of random and unfitting monsters piled up against level transition points.
1.6 fixes that issue, having much more regulated spawns, untouched by Kanyhalos. Since 1.4 much work has gone into smart terrains, which dictate the terrain NPC's and Mutants can traverse. All mutants and Stalker can travel far and broad across the zone, for instance, I noticed a group of Bandits from Cordon in Dark Valley, who had taken over the base that had once had the Gauss Rifle Scammers. Of course I killed them, while they were playing Guitar, and I noticed they were using the weapon loadouts from the Cordon Bandits Spawns.
I also noticed Bloodsuckers had taken root in the previously uninhabited factory next to the Military Checkpoint at Cordon Bridge after I had returned from Dark Valley. I also noticed a Giant traversing the Dark Valley forest. After I engaged it in battle, I ran into the bandit base and watched it level the bandits inhabiting the building, (The ones who were waiting outside it anyways).
You'll notice more unscripted events then ever with the latest implementation of aLive, all of which don't detract from the main plot, which has had much effort placed into preserving, while improving the aspects surrounding it. You'll be happy to know that all of the weapons that have been implemented have gone through perilous quality control, and have been reoriented and completely rebalanced so as to not stray from the feeling of progression and scaling the original had, albeit someone broken in vanilla.
The current set of weapons is a composite of Arsenal, Vanilla, and various other implementations from standalone mods. Needless to say there isn't a single weapon implemented that I haven't went touched. Work is currently being put into where they're implemented, although most NPC's will carry similar loadouts as to vanilla, although bandits have been redone completely, and more variety will be available for each faction, confined of course to the logical access they'd have to each weapon, and the ammunition theme they'd have.
Finding the right balance between realism, fun, and balance, was a very hard obstacle, making each gun feel different, have different strengths and advantages, and have generic improvements were all taken into account. There will be circumstances when even an AKSU is preferred, because it's lighter, higher RPM, and better handling make it a preferred choice for close-range combat to even the AK74 at certain times.
Needless to say, new parameters needed to be added in order to create proper scaling and balance for each weapon. Weapon sway is now a reality, making the human factor prevalent in Stalker, rather then raw weapon statistics.
I wanted to give all the L.U.R.K. followers a little more insight into what's being done between my team and I, we're working hard to refine, build upon, and overall improve the Stalker experience. I feel confident enough to say that L.U.R.K. is now the definitive visual overhaul, combining elements from Clear Sky, various modders, and meticulous tweaking from myself and additions from myself.
The atmosphere and gameplay elements have been refined and overhauled to preserve and enhance the original objective. To create a living, breathing zone, lead through the eyes of a real human S.T.A.L.K.E.R., taking into account realistic human parameters, everything to weight, capacity, speed, and accuracy, without crossing the boundary that game developers avoid with reality simulation.
I believe we've reached the threshold for the definitive S.T.A.L.K.E.R. experience, and I plan to continually improve it after the initial release based on input from fans and followers, and myself.
I've posted image galleries for Cordon, Garbage, Dark Valley, and the Bar. See for yourself how far the Aesthetic factor has departed from any other modification (I'm aware of the visual errors that can be depicted from the images, and work is being done to fix them):
Cordon/Escape
The Bar
Dark Valley
The Garbage
Note that most of the images were taken during the afternoon for in-game time, so the weather cycles are fairly hard to see, currently working on implementing distant landscape textures from Argus onto Clear Sky dynamic Skybox textures.
Also note that the complaints over removing Blowouts are being heard, however it'll remain a reality until I can properly refine them, in both gameplay and visuals. Argus seems to have set to work upon improving blowouts aesthetically, therefore it seems that refining the gameplay aspect falls upon me.
-Mosin Nagant (This is old news, and I added it before anyways, after a reskin and new orientations)
-Raging Bull
And that's it. All the other ones either had poor animations, poor models, poor textures, or just didn't fit in with the game (See Vulcan Chaingun).
Stalker needed a good Bolt-Action Rifle, and a Revolver never hurt nobody. It hurt to watch the MP40 and the STG44 go, I really would have liked to see bandits carrying WW2 era weapons, but they were too poorly implemented. I'll probably reskin them and re-animate them after the base release, or when I have time to work on new features instead of balancing current implementations. Expect to see a release soon, the weapon loadouts are being worked on at the discretion of my good friend Giegue, and bugfixing and other balance issues are being worked on.
Just recently I've been fixing crashes related to NPC drop probabilities, and overall trimming for performance. The AI has undergone a complete overhaul, creating a dynamic visibility threshold, which makes NPC's detection variable to lighting conditions. During the night, or even during the late evening, you can L.U.R.K (couldn't resist) in the shadows from enemy NPC's without being detected.
NPC's no longer have a static visibility threshold, which was completely retarded to begin with. This entails NPC's detecting you regardless of circumstance within a certain radius, which was, get this, 15ft in Oblivion Lost and Vanilla. Now the knife has newfangled possibilities, with no sound being emitted from stabbing your knife, and NPC's not spotting you automatically.
NPC sound detection has completely changed, NPC's no longer have super-sensory hearing, and they can't distinguish your footsteps from allied NPC footsteps anymore, making flanking maneuvers a possible, and often necessary tactic now. If you were to fire a weapon, and maneuver around a box, it's possible to knife an NPC while they're in alert status, remaining undetected.
Work has even undergone to fix Vanilla NPC bugs, NPC's can now detect flashlights, and the "look at the sky and walk forward" error has also been fixed, as well as many different problems regarding AI. This was merely a sound detection error, for instance an NPC heard a noise in the distance and they became fixated upon it, often regardless of your interference. However little testing has been done so I can't say for sure whether or not this has been fixed.
The latest edition of aLive, version 1.6 has been implemented into Stalker. Oblivion Lost utilizes version 1.4, and subsequently raped the shit out of it with retardedly high blowout triggered monster spawns, resulting in packs of random and unfitting monsters piled up against level transition points.
1.6 fixes that issue, having much more regulated spawns, untouched by Kanyhalos. Since 1.4 much work has gone into smart terrains, which dictate the terrain NPC's and Mutants can traverse. All mutants and Stalker can travel far and broad across the zone, for instance, I noticed a group of Bandits from Cordon in Dark Valley, who had taken over the base that had once had the Gauss Rifle Scammers. Of course I killed them, while they were playing Guitar, and I noticed they were using the weapon loadouts from the Cordon Bandits Spawns.
I also noticed Bloodsuckers had taken root in the previously uninhabited factory next to the Military Checkpoint at Cordon Bridge after I had returned from Dark Valley. I also noticed a Giant traversing the Dark Valley forest. After I engaged it in battle, I ran into the bandit base and watched it level the bandits inhabiting the building, (The ones who were waiting outside it anyways).
You'll notice more unscripted events then ever with the latest implementation of aLive, all of which don't detract from the main plot, which has had much effort placed into preserving, while improving the aspects surrounding it. You'll be happy to know that all of the weapons that have been implemented have gone through perilous quality control, and have been reoriented and completely rebalanced so as to not stray from the feeling of progression and scaling the original had, albeit someone broken in vanilla.
The current set of weapons is a composite of Arsenal, Vanilla, and various other implementations from standalone mods. Needless to say there isn't a single weapon implemented that I haven't went touched. Work is currently being put into where they're implemented, although most NPC's will carry similar loadouts as to vanilla, although bandits have been redone completely, and more variety will be available for each faction, confined of course to the logical access they'd have to each weapon, and the ammunition theme they'd have.
Finding the right balance between realism, fun, and balance, was a very hard obstacle, making each gun feel different, have different strengths and advantages, and have generic improvements were all taken into account. There will be circumstances when even an AKSU is preferred, because it's lighter, higher RPM, and better handling make it a preferred choice for close-range combat to even the AK74 at certain times.
Needless to say, new parameters needed to be added in order to create proper scaling and balance for each weapon. Weapon sway is now a reality, making the human factor prevalent in Stalker, rather then raw weapon statistics.
I wanted to give all the L.U.R.K. followers a little more insight into what's being done between my team and I, we're working hard to refine, build upon, and overall improve the Stalker experience. I feel confident enough to say that L.U.R.K. is now the definitive visual overhaul, combining elements from Clear Sky, various modders, and meticulous tweaking from myself and additions from myself.
The atmosphere and gameplay elements have been refined and overhauled to preserve and enhance the original objective. To create a living, breathing zone, lead through the eyes of a real human S.T.A.L.K.E.R., taking into account realistic human parameters, everything to weight, capacity, speed, and accuracy, without crossing the boundary that game developers avoid with reality simulation.
I believe we've reached the threshold for the definitive S.T.A.L.K.E.R. experience, and I plan to continually improve it after the initial release based on input from fans and followers, and myself.
I've posted image galleries for Cordon, Garbage, Dark Valley, and the Bar. See for yourself how far the Aesthetic factor has departed from any other modification (I'm aware of the visual errors that can be depicted from the images, and work is being done to fix them):
Cordon/Escape
The Bar
Dark Valley
The Garbage
Note that most of the images were taken during the afternoon for in-game time, so the weather cycles are fairly hard to see, currently working on implementing distant landscape textures from Argus onto Clear Sky dynamic Skybox textures.
Also note that the complaints over removing Blowouts are being heard, however it'll remain a reality until I can properly refine them, in both gameplay and visuals. Argus seems to have set to work upon improving blowouts aesthetically, therefore it seems that refining the gameplay aspect falls upon me.
Wednesday, May 13, 2009
Adding Weapons from Super Mod Pack
Right now I'm deciding which weapons I should add into this mod from SMP. Note that I can reskin and reanimate some of them if they're lacking in that department. I'm also overhauling the ballistics of the ones I choose to add, and reconfiguring the NPC loadouts from scratch. Here's the list of things in SMP, you can easily tell which of the ones are SMP exclusive at the moment:
http://media.moddb.com/images/mods/1/13/12551/ui_icon_equipment.jpg
Please suggest to me which guns you'd like to see from SMP. Note that most of them are already in from Arsenal, and of course vanilla. However I recut most of those anyways.
http://media.moddb.com/images/mods/1/13/12551/ui_icon_equipment.jpg
Please suggest to me which guns you'd like to see from SMP. Note that most of them are already in from Arsenal, and of course vanilla. However I recut most of those anyways.
Tuesday, May 12, 2009
Possible Direction Change
After receiving tons of complaints about the new monsters, spawns, modded events, and weapons from Oblivion Lost, I had started fervently changing and removing features from Oblivion Lost that were incorporated into L.U.R.K.. After a while I realized that I, and most everyone didn't like any of the features that Oblivion Lost added.
That's why I've decided to start working on a brand new version entirely free from Oblivion Lost, while still incorporating every other feature I've made, all the balancing I've done, and all the implementations from various other mods as well as Arsenal.
Please post in the poll about your feelings on the subject. If enough people actually want the features from Oblivion Lost, then I can spend time reworking the Oblivion Lost variant.
Here are some benefits from truncating Oblivion Lost:
-Much Higher Stability, faster loading, and improved performance
-No stupid boss fights
-No Kanyhalos quality dialogues
-No retarded monster spawns
-Improved Alife from aLive mod 1.6
-Restored True Ending
-etc..
That's why I've decided to start working on a brand new version entirely free from Oblivion Lost, while still incorporating every other feature I've made, all the balancing I've done, and all the implementations from various other mods as well as Arsenal.
Please post in the poll about your feelings on the subject. If enough people actually want the features from Oblivion Lost, then I can spend time reworking the Oblivion Lost variant.
Here are some benefits from truncating Oblivion Lost:
-Much Higher Stability, faster loading, and improved performance
-No stupid boss fights
-No Kanyhalos quality dialogues
-No retarded monster spawns
-Improved Alife from aLive mod 1.6
-Restored True Ending
-etc..
Creating Color Maps
Before I tell you what I'm doing, I'll explain to you how a color map works. A color map dictates the various color hues that are placed on top of landscapes. It basically scales the texture file over the entire map in order simulate terrain, while making the texture dependant on surface bumps and detail instead of color. It's a smart way to conserve computing resources.


This image depicts the color maps for the Garbage. Unfortunately in their current state they look goofy. Right now I'm just trying to fix the splotchy effect the standard color maps have. Especially the random pockets of orange and yellow dispersed on the surface.

This image depicts the color maps for the Garbage. Unfortunately in their current state they look goofy. Right now I'm just trying to fix the splotchy effect the standard color maps have. Especially the random pockets of orange and yellow dispersed on the surface.
Established L.U.R.K. Blog
Seeing as how it's incredibly inconvenient to continually repost threads on /v/, I've decided to establish a static base of operations. I'll post my current status, added features, new images, and news on Xfire streams here, as well as whatever else should concern you about this mod.
Note that it's public, and I hope that you'll take advantage of this site to offer suggestions and/or recruitment for the mod. I'm still trying to work the interface, although I'm trying to make numerous slideshow albums on the right columns on this website.
Note that it's public, and I hope that you'll take advantage of this site to offer suggestions and/or recruitment for the mod. I'm still trying to work the interface, although I'm trying to make numerous slideshow albums on the right columns on this website.
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