Thanks for the replies.

I'm not qualified to comment on potential technical issues:)

As for exploits that's up to the player. I mean in the base game you can select easy money and buy guns from the sporting goods dealer and then sell them for a profit to the bartender. Worse you can follow the rebels attacking towns and spectate from someplace safe and then scoop up all the guns, armor, grenades and other goodies.

I know you are right and that I should relax my sphincter when it comes to what other players might do with their game, but... I like having a tight one:grin:

But yeah, not being forced to avoid friendlies when they happen to occupy a good spot will actually increase the tactical possibilities. So it will be part of the test version and hopefully it will work well and not cause any other problems with group relationships.

New Maps
 

R@S,

If there is no possibilty of new maps would it be possible to recylce some of the old/reloaded ones into additional scenarios?

I had a crazy thought that maybe you could take Santa Maria, remove all the civilians from it (AKA Organ Donars - Collatoral just doesn't describe them) and turn it into something like the golden turtle mission from E5?
- A large prize defended by Immortal's - Maybe a cache of unique guns, or a helicopter for Skyrider. A proper use all your ammo, resort to pistols, grenades etc type of battle. (Maybe with a dose of the old NHS free health service at the end of it!)

(- Maybe it could even start by springing the Shaman from El Vertigo al la Tanya.)

Another idea meandering across my brain is some hostage rescue missions, set in the existing towns, but with all the hostiles and victim in a CQB setting. (All the lovely CQB weapons in BSM, and nowhere to play with them!) Putting less-armoured targets in these settings would keep the player using pistols and sub-machine guns into the high CGLs as they would have a benefit in these types of mission.

Just my tuppence worth, it's easy to think of the ideas, far harder to implement them.

I have played with the recycle idea and there has been one thing holding me back. The boxes on those maps are shared, so no matter what you do, if it's in the box in Santa-Maria, it will be in the new one as well.

But since we have no map editor, it might be the only way to add "new" ones. And like you, I really like the CQB fights you get in cities. I have added a few such missions, the Paco ones, to the game, but those are fairly early on and you don't have a very big selection of weapons. Well, you actually do now that there is a lot of WW2 stuff added, but it would still be fun with more of those type of battles.

Adding a few scenarios with some of the city maps where all the normal people are removed, is a good idea. It would have to be at a fairly high CGL, but it would be fun. I'll see what I can throw together when I have time. I have a pretty full work-load ATM, with the new shop inventory to go though, and updating most of the enemy load-outs. But the latter needs to wait until I have added all the weapons I plan to for the 2.0 release, so I might be able to squeeze something together in-between.

And don't be afraid of throwing out ideas, even if they prove to be impossible, more often than not do they at least lead to new ideas that are possible.

Thanks R@S

The battles I always enjoyed most in E5 were those were you ended up firing all your weapons.
Not just a 50m gun battle, but having to get in close to flush out the enemies in the buildings.
Even if it was only one or two it always made carrying a pistol/shotgun/SMG a worthwhile option. The speed advantage beat the damage advantage, and with the likes of AFP's Immortals MP7, you got a lot of both.

With the likes of Santa Maria, the stuff in the boxes is fairly low level so I don't think it would be a game breaker if you made the new missions high enough cgl. You've (rightly) nerfed the easy access weapons.

Yeah, I understand where you're coming from.

What's always somewhat intimidated me is the sense of tension and fear that one can experience in this game. The fact that one can zoom in so close to see what's happening makes it a more visceral experience.

I recently posted at the Bear Pit forum that the biggest drawbacks to me in regards to this engine has been the lack of fully accessible buildings. By that I also mean being able to blow in walls. But those times where one has to take advantage of interior and exterior spaces simultaneously, well, it gets hard to breathe sometimes.

I'm all for "recycling" urban centers for combat. R@S, is there any way to get the civilians to flee an area (run far away and then fade out as they're removed from the map), and/or have them huddle together in one or (at most) two rooms of enter-able buildings? This would be a believable way to handle them, rather than have them crisscrossing streets.

Also, and I'm just throwing this out there partly out of curiosity, but is it possible to port over STALKER models into the game? STALKER's developers have seriously given their blessing for porting over their content to be used in mods.

Sorry guys, going to have to make a short reply, feeling a bit under the weather and are afraid of rambling incoherently:)

I'll make a few CQB mission with enemies equipped with MP7's, KRISS Super V's and other high quality CQB weapons. Promise I'll get started once I feel better.

Models from STALKER can be imported, if they don't have too many polys, which usually is the case.

Thanks R@S,

I think I'll go practice those CQB skills.

(I Hope you feel better soon.)

Rest as much as possible, and get some hot chicken soup.

I hope that you feel much better soon.

Classes disabled for ver. 1.9?
 

R@S,

(or anyone else who happens to know the answer), was the class system disabled for ver. 1.9 of the mod? I've leveled up, but every time I select "class parameters and skills" nothing gets listed to select.

Matter of fact, I don't recall even selecting my class for Kurt.

Only respond to this if you're feeling healthy. Rest!