Wild Territory - A level that needs to be fixed

[Mazryonh 0]

I remember that in the original unmodded SoC, anomalies would not move. While I am grateful to the AMK team for adding in blowouts that moved the anomalies, apparently the law of unintended consequences had to strike a few times along the way. One of the ways this shows up most is in Wild Territory.

 

Whenever you load a save from when you enter a level for the first time on that playthrough, the anomalies also spawn in random areas. While this normally isn't a problem and most NPCs with AI scripts to walk to a certain location are usually smart enough to avoid anomalies in the way (such as Bullet in the Dark Valley who must go to a certain location to rescue his friend, or the Stalker who tells you about the ambush on Mole's men when you first enter the Agroprom Research Institute level and then runs over to the Eastern complex to join the fight), one notable exception is Professor Kruglov when you first enter the Wild Territory level.

 

Because the Wild Territory level is not an open field like the Agroprom Research Institute and the Dark Valley, his AI pathing script is very restricted and doesn't allow him to change his path at all to avoid anomalies. While his armour allows him to shrug off the effects of walking into Electra and Burner anomalies, Whirligigs, Vortices, and Springboards are an entirely different matter--they always kill him instantly, just like any other NPC who walks into them. I believe the AMK mod calls those last two anomalies types "Mincers and Mosquito Balds." Unfortunately due to the fact that these anomalies can spawn in anywhere (changing location after every blowout) it is often likely that he'll walk into one--and be killed instantly--if one just happened to spawn in his path.

 

During my last three attempts to escort Kruglov to Yantar, the following things happened to him.

 

1) Once when he was running to the ambush site by the second group of mercenaries that spawn in after you agree to escort him, he kept running into a Vortex anomaly and was killed by it, EVERY TIME, since he couldn't avoid it.

 

2) Another time I was more successful and managed to get him to the Burner anomaly tunnel, but once he walked out of it, he was ALWAYS killed by a Springboard/Mosquito Bald anomaly that was directly in his way.

 

3) My most recent attempt (the one that eventually caused a bug to arise that stopped me from sleeping or using the Stalker chat network) was the most successful. I managed to get him to the other side of the Burner anomaly tunnel and got his recipe. Unfortunately, the random anomaly spawner had one more surprise in store for me. As he was making his way to the exit to Yantar, he always walked into a Whirligig anomaly that sucked him up and killed him. I eventually figured out that if I went to the exit towards Yantar before he did, he would still be considered "alive" by the game engine and then would spawn as normal inside the Mobile Science Bunker. I was proven right, though I had to discard that savegame as well because of the severity of the bug that hit me.

 

You might be wondering why I'm so concerned about a fictional person in a computer game. This is partly because of the fact that if you escort through the Burner anomaly tunnel, he will give you a recipe you can't get anywhere else, and second, I much prefer to escort him around Yantar rather than the other Ecologists.

 

I can think of two solutions for this problem. One is simply to make Kruglov immune to damage from those three anomalies. The other is to change the anomaly spawning code so that those three anomaly types (Whirligig, Vortex, and Springboard, or Whirligig, Mincer, and Mosquito Bald) simply never spawn into the areas Kruglov walks into, unless the mission has been failed (i.e., if he has been shot and killed or eaten by a mutant) or if the mission is successfully completed. Since Kruglov sticks to a very limited area when he runs to the exit of Yantar, I don't think this would be overly complicated either.

 

I have also wondered what would happen if a blowout happened in the middle of the "Escort Kruglov" mission. While I've never actually tried it for fear he might be caught in the blowout and then get killed, I don't think it would be very difficult to make him immune to blowout damage. Or have the AMK developers already taken measures against this?

[CarbonMonoxide 0]

I belive developers can't make every "quest-eventual" NPC immune to ever-possible-danger. As it is frequently said in russian threads: "the Zone is deadly - people do get killed sometimes". Once Kruglov gets killed you loose some info, get the mini-quest failed, but still can proceed with the main storyline.

To keep Kruglov alive try some precautions:

1. Clear up the area - take out all of the mercs before talking to Kruglov. To do so avoid triggering the in game camera flight - take the roundabout path either along the railway or through the radiated hangar (beware of the snorks).

2. Once you have talked to Kruglov some more mercs will spawn but they are not too numerous so try to kill them quick.

3. Avoiding anomalies - once the area is clear, run away from Kruglov towards Yantar like hell. Getting away from him more then 150 meters (AFAIR) will switch off the Alife and in that mode he will ignore all of the anomalies. Wait him to meet you at the exit. Talk to him, then try to run away again.

PROFIT

Изменено 16 Сентября 2009 пользователем CarbonMonoxide

[Mazryonh 0]

CarbonMonoxide:

 

3. Avoiding anomalies - once the area is clear, run away from Kruglov towards Yantar like hell. Getting away from him more then 150 meters (AFAIR) will switch off the Alife and in that mode he will ignore all of the anomalies. Wait him to meet you at the exit. Talk to him, then try to run away again.

PROFIT

 

Actually, I'm not even certain that it's possible to get 150 meters away from Kruglov once his AI routine makes him run towards the rendezvous point where he'll give you the recipe, as there's very little remaining of the level once you go south of the Burner anomaly tunnel. Besides, that strategy can't solve the problem that results if an anomaly spawns RIGHT AT the rendezvous point where he meets you, which will mean that either he will be killed by the Springboard, Vortex, or Whirligig anomaly, or that he will be waiting for you right in the middle of a Fruit Punch, Burner, or Electro anomaly, so it will be near impossible to talk to him and get the recipe without getting yourself killed.

 

In fact, I already do my best to kill ALL the Mercenaries and monsters in the level BEFORE talking to Kruglov, so that's not really a problem. Sadly, anomalies cannot be moved or neutralized in any way by the player, so that's why I made this thread so as to highlight just how difficult the "random anomaly spawner" makes this quest to be. After all, the AMK team made it so that Kruglov is the ONLY one who can give you an artifact recipe as well.

[CarbonMonoxide 0]

the placement of anomalies is rebuilt once you enter the location for the first time or after the blowout. then the only way out is to use your previous savegame - autosave or save in the Bar prior to the entering of WT

[ahilej 0]

Hi to you both, I do have the same problem with Kruglov who dies in different types of anomalies, most often Springboard, Vortex, or Whirligigs. Once at a time, an interesting solution came by itself, between two tries to get out of the Wild Terrirory altogether with Kruglov, who was constantly ripped appart by an anomaly, blowout came. He went back into the tunel with "Burners", and kindly waited for the blowout to end. So did I (the Marked One). It costed me several antirads and a lot more medkits, despite the strong artifacts I had on the belt. At the end of the blowout anomalies respawned, and a safe path opened to both of us. It could be possible, although I haver never tried, if one encounteres the killer anomaly problem, simply to sleep in the "Burner" tunel, Kruglov will wait, blowout will came... and then will be easy to go. But I agree that something must be done ingame, by AMK team. Both of the above mentioned solutions are reasonable to me. :-)

[Mazryonh 0]

ahilej,

 

Did you set blowouts to occur every 12 hours? You can only sleep for a maximum of 5 hours with your sleeping bag, and then you can't sleep for a number of hours. I set my blowouts to occur once every 30 hours, so using that method would take a very long time. It would be better to use CarbonMonoxide's method and load a save from before you entered Wild Territory for the first time so the anomalies will go to different locations. Even so, that method still has its own problems . . .

 

CarbonMonoxide,

 

Normally that would work for me, but unfortunately as I take care not to enter Wild Territory too soon, that usually means enormous hordes of mutants have gotten there, including a large group of Electro-Chimeras. Everytime I have to restart the level from an earlier save, it means I have to kill them all again. Many times Kruglov was eaten by a bunch of mutants getting close to his location long before I could even get near his area. It would make a lot more sense if the mutant population was capped at some maximum when you enter an area for the first time, since they usually aren't being killed to reduce their numbers the first time you enter the area.

[Master Bates 0]

Mazryonh,

 

I, too, have noticed a problem with ridiculously high numbers of wildlife spawning - including a pack of four(!) Pseudogiants in Agroprom, and a horde of assorted animals in the Dark Valley. However annoying this may be at times, it has also resulted in cool/interesting/hilarious situations occasionally - such as the pseudogiants in question distracting all the soldiers, allowing me to sneak into the research facility and steal the documents undectected, or one memorable occasion during my current playthough where I showed up at the bandit base in the Dark Valley to 'borrow' Borov's key only to find literally every single person (except the Duty guy in prison) there dead, having been overrun by swarms of animals.

 

EDIT: With regards to Wild Territory, I've noticed that if a blowout occurs during the Mercenary/Ecologist firefight, the game crashes about halfway through the blowout, without fail.

Изменено 24 Сентября 2009 пользователем Master Bates

[ahilej 0]

I am an really old stalker, I would like to see a switch for random blowouts at the AMK installation. Let's see how many of us will survive that... :-)

High number of monsters is corrected in AMK 1.4.1. patch 2. But this is a Russian release only. They finally realized that not everyone can buy NVidia GTX 295 :-) but if one DO HAVE GTX 295, the Flamethrower is the solution. You know where to find it, dont you?! :-)

Wild Territory is enough wild without monsters, IMO. Jus those tushkanos maybe. Where the big monsters came from, this is a factory, isn't it?! But it can be properly cleaned before saving Kruglov anyway. Flamethower... :-) Or a scoped rifle. And go for the crane as the highest point. Though normally electrochimeras should not be spawned there before saving Kruglov, this is even earlier AMK, maybe 1.3, thus it is obviously an error.

But I really think that main enemy in the Zone could be people and their greed. Monsters can be solved with proper equipment. People can not... one must think first, act later. :-)

 

[Mazryonh 0]

ahilej,

 

Yes, I know where to get the Flamethrower, and I recently just got it from Screw at the Freedom base. Unfortunately for some reason Stalkers keep dying for no real reason in the centre of the Freedom base, including the very important NPC named Max. With this death, I have been completely locked out of the opportunities to join the Freedom faction, the ability to complete 3 quests, and possibly some artifact recipes as well.

 

I use an Nvidia 9800 GT, which is not too bad today, but definitely not enough to handle the very large monster mobs that can spawn in. It may in fact actually be a problem of the XRay Engine when it can't handle all the pathing problems of the various monster mobs that can spawn into an area you haven't been to in a long time.

 

I think something else that needs to be fixed about Wild Territory is how after you've saved or killed Kruglov, the Mercenaries and Bandits keep spawning in the same areas all the time. Unlike levels like Cordon or the Dark Valley, there's no variation as to where they spawn, so it's a very linear level with very few surprises as to where your human enemies are likely to be. Having groups of bandits, mercenaries, or military wander around Wild Territory would be nice. In fact, having them wander around Lake Yantar after the X16 Psi-Emitter is turned off would be nice too.

[ahilej 0]

Mazuroth,

I am certainly bored of Mercs and Bandits at the same places. Eliminating them is a routine. To be even worse, they - the bodies, or 'virtual bodies' if you like, are not cleaned up even if AMK developpers claim 'body removal time decreased to a day'. So I play AMK 1.4.1 now (Russian, but it is the same, as for the Wild Territory at least) and have to jump over twenty or so bodies to fight with the-new-spawned four alive enemies. :-( And due to a bug in game AI, dead bodies have over and over new and different stash info, even the already checked ones.

But I seriously doubt that this can be fixed, S.T.A.L.K.E.R. is in fact a very old game, developping began as early as 2003 (did you know that, I am still keeping a computer magazine from that year where S.T.A.L.K.E.R. was introduced and claimed to be in sale just six monts later!?) and release date was delayed as much as five times. Until 2007. Sometimes is easier or faster to develop new routines from scratch, and the hardware and software for which S.T.A.L.K.E.R. was originally intended is now far away from us. Sometimes the things wanted are simply the things impossible. Or incompatible. For example, even you will agree that the most obvious, graphics engine, is the worse around, I mean, in the present time.

So when this will be fixed? As soon as possible, but...

In the Call of Pripyat, maybe. Or if someone tries and succeeds to remake S.T.A.L.K.E.R. completely, having from old GSC game just the storyline. :-)

 

[utak3r 6]

Recently I've changed the setting for the stalkers ability to hear anomalies - and it seems to be a bit better... although I haven't seen Kruglov yet - I'm changing the scripts so often that I can't get past garbage, lol... starting new game over and over...

Nevertheless, I was often loosing some of the quest NPCs, and since this little change it's somewhat better.