Originally Posted by Elvis;113750
Hi folks,
as you know and Don Reba already wrote, Michi received a SP Preview Version of STALKER a few days ago. So right now he answering a lot of questions and i just started the translation of it all, so you will not be left in the dark
So Yeah, lets start I just post the q&a .. most answers are from Michi .. i translated it in the same way the questions where asked and answered ..
EDIT: I reworked the layout for reading pleasure + correction of some sentences. Comments are welcome
Q&A
Q. did you like it ?
A. Altogether i have a positive Impression. There are some minor errors in the preview version that are solved in the gold master as GSC/THQ said. GSC is currently working on a patch also.
Q. If you see a little group of stalker in the distance and you kill
one of them, will the others know where you are or do have to search you ?
A. It depends if you use a silencer and what daytime it is (Day/Night)
Q. What about Level boundaries and the wall we have seen ?
A. Level boundaries a mostly with barbwire. The ominous wall is only in the army camp and is not really noticeable.
Q. What about the border of the zone ?
A. The Zone boundary is mostly covered with barbwire and sometime buildings.
Q. Is life in the zone really not predictable or will the mutants spawn always in the same spots ?
A. No, NPCs and Monsters always interact and spawn differently. If you load a savegame and expect to see the army patrol again, then you will be baffled
Q. Damage is realistic ?
A. The damage modell is not finally optimized in the preview version. I cannot say to much about if, but it works better as seen in the older gamerplayvideos.
Q. Playtime ? If you want to see all and do all the quests, how long does it take ?
A. If you just do the mainquests, then its around 15 hours. But you can choose which Mainmissions you want to do, not all are a must ! It also depends on how fast you solve teh missions. There are many many Sidequests so the playtime can be from 25+ to much more.
Q. Are there exit wounds ?
A. no exit wounds
Q. Headbobbing ?
A. not in the normal config, but you can activate it via the console
Q. How is teh AI reacting to sick ideas like trying to kill Wolf in the first settlement ?
A. If you arrive at the dealers bunker, you automatically put the weapon away. If you kill the guys in the settlement for example, it will not be unnoticed and you will have a lot of enemies in the future.
Q. What about the equipment thrown on the floor like bread, ammo .. does it stay there ? Or just Weapons like in the MP ´?
A. Yes, as far as i can tell everything stays on the floor, tried it with weapons and ammo.
Q. Are ragdolls able to lay over each other ?
A. yes but you dont see it often
Q. How are the animations and ragdoll ?
A. They improved them to a certain degree in comparison to the press event in Kiev. But it still looks a little bit stiff if a NPC falls down.
Q. Is the hunting shotgun included, which was removed from the actual MP beta ?
A. whats the exact modell of the shotgun ? i have to check it.
Q. Is the sp playtime really 15h ?
A. If you explore everything, do Sidequests, then its longer than 15h
Q. Is the zone really that lively as always praised by GSC/THQ ? Mutants hunting each other etc.
A. Yes it is As you described it .. hunting mutant packs etc.
Q. Sidequests .. only standard like get A from B or collect 10 X and kill Mr.D ?
A. there a different types of sidequests .. mostly quests like „bring me the old gun of my grandfather“ or „kill XY“ or „retrieve artifact XY“
Q. Are there more Mutants as we know of yet ?
A. Untill now i saw no mutants that i didnt know of before.
Q. All MP Weapons in SP ?
A. Yes !
Q. 10 GB installer ?
A. Preview Version is not 10GB but there is no MP and other things missing.
Q. How long does it take to run from the start to the upper end of the zone ?
A. around 20 minutes ?
thats part I .. there is a lot more to come ^^ have fun .. please excuse all bad grammar etc.
elvis
PART II
Q. Is it possible to complete the game alone without joining a stalker fraction ?
A. Yes, thats possible, but you have to pay attention regarding the needed armor or weapons which you need to have a chance in the later levels.
Q. Is the night really dark or like the mp beta ( cloudy and a little bit darker than normal) ?
A. depends on the map, what i say was a bit darker + heavy clouds
Q. System for the preview ?
A.
Intel Core2Duo E6600
Nvidia 8800 GTX 768MB
2GB Kingston DDR2 Speicher 667Mhz
Samsung 250GB HDD
Asus PhysX P1 Karte
Acer AL2216Wsd 22" TFT @ 1680x1050
uvm..
I played STALKER only in DX9 and there it depends on the map .. differs from 10-100 FPS .. everything maxed out FSAA etc. The level with the biggest performance hit was not completed yet
Q. Loading time between levels ?
A. 10-15 seconds
Q. Can you combine equipment beside weapons ?
A. No
Q. If you sell a weapon / armor / light to an npc have you seen that he uses them right away ?
A. No
Q. Did you found accidentally dead NPCs which most likely died in a (nonscripted / no mission) firefight / ambush etc. ?
A. Yeah, you see that everywhere in the zone, some are barely alive and you can give them a medikit
Q. Did you have funny experiences with the AI ?
A. If you are standing right in front of a NPC and you hold a weapon, he refuses to speak with you.
Q. Can you choose between DX8 / DX 9 in the preview build ?
A. didnt try that yet
Q. Is there a big difference between Preview and the Gold master ?
A. The actual MP part is missing and some maps are not complete. The final optimization is missing also.
Q. Is the story good ? Are there thrilling moments ?
A. Yeah, and there are very interesting cutscenes
Q. Is the german spoken language well done ?
A. The german voices have a russian touch. I personally think its well done
Q. can you enter buildings ? Are there often enemies inside ?
A.
e.g. in pripyat you can enter certain buildings and in the rest of the zone you can enter almost every house ... if you will find enemies inside .. i guess you have to discover this by yourself
Q. Did you find some bugs ?
A.
Yeah, e.g. optimization problems and minor AI blackouts (NPC reloads his weapon again and again and again
Q. Did you found some water ?
A. Yes, but as already know there isnt much in the zone
Q. In a magazine they said "less interaction with the environment" .. is this true ?
A. Sadly thats true, e.g. you cannot take stones or old cigarette boxes
Q. are there bosses ?
A. No comment !
Q. What about Enemies ... not Soldiers, but Controllers, Bloodsucker .. are they well done ?
A. they are absolutely not friendly (can you please specify ?)
Q. Is the engine more optimzed in comparison to the mp beta ?
A. Cannot be compared really. The structure is completly different because of map size, AI Lifesim has to be calculated etc.)
Thats it for now .. i´m tired As soon as i have time i will translate the rest of the Q&A .. (for your info i translated 5 Word pages from 19 !!)
cheers
Thanks to Michi for answering a bunch of questions !