Well, you've all probably heard about S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 being effectively banished to development hell forever. If not, well, S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 has been banished to development hell forever.

Anyway, Survarium. Post-apocalyptic F2P MMO made by the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. folks. It has every possibility of sucking due to its previously mentioned F2P MMO-ness. What do you guys think needs to happen to keep it from being horrible, and to satisfy our S.T.A.L.K.E.R. cravings?

Personally, I think the first thing they need to do is develop the game around very low density servers. Seeing desolate, ruined streets filled with noobs doesn't quite mesh with what I think a good post-apocalypse scavenging game should be.

Thoughts?

Why would you want anything from Clear Sky?

CS was the worst stalker game of the three

Armor values to be consistent between player characters and NPCs. That's the only thing I hated about the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. games. I could unload a full clip before an enemy would go down, but die from a few shots unless I was wearing an exoskeleton.

Matthew94:

Because I like the mechanic.

Your post stinks of "why do you like what I don't".

I actually liked clear Sky, but I also think it was the worst of the three.

Matthew94:

wintercoat:
Armor values to be consistent between player characters and NPCs. That's the only thing I hated about the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. games. I could unload a full clip before an enemy would go down, but die from a few shots unless I was wearing an exoskeleton.

That's why I loved the realistic weapons mod which meant enemies died like I did. It made SOC much more fun.

I played both SoC and CoP vanilla. When I heard that there was a thriving mod community that fixed most of the bugs I came across, and fixed the horrid balance, I wanted to punch a wall. If it wasn't for 1-2 hit kill headshots, I never would have made it through the CNPP. Fuck Monolith soldiers.

On that note, the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. games are some of the few(CS the exception) games I've played where I loved that it was difficult. Weapons jam due to degrading, armor degrades as it's damaged, being able to carry a limited weight, but not several hundred pounds like other games, items having realistic weights, bullets having weight. It all comes together in a really well done package. I guess...that's what I want from the MMO. Everything the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. games were. They don't even need to be refined, just give me S.T.A.L.K.E.R. with friends and I'll be happy. Oh, and S.T.A.L.K.E.R. rankings like in CoP. I WILL BE NUMBAH 1!!!!!

I dunno if making it F2P is such a good idea. S.T.A.L.K.E.R. isn't exactly the kind of thing that'd gather a massive audience, and I'm pretty sure that the studio doesn't have an excess of money to create and upkeep a fully fledged MMO without significant player support.
On top of this they'll be competing with Planetside, The Secret World and other similar-ish games both F2P and with a paid subscription model or whatever, coming out both this year and later. Seeing as F2P action games are becoming a bigger and bigger thing, this one will likely drown in a sea of similar titles shortly after it's release.

If this does actually work I personally want;
- Keep it S.T.A.L.K.E.R.-esque, duh.
- No classes.
- Raids with a maximum of only about 5 or 6 players. Too many would just feel unneccessary and crowded, kind of killing the original feel, while having a fairly limited number would make it a bit more co-op focused, each player in a raid would be important.
- In PvP no player should have a significant advantage. Weapons and gear should have positives and negatives and not immediately make others obsolete. You should always be able to fight effectively in any PvP situation regardless of what stuff you have or how long you've been playing, especially in an FPS.
- Everything in the game should be very weak, including players. I don't think any of us want to see a guy take a hundred MG rounds.
- No levelling system of any kind, but have a system for upgrading weapons, gear and armour.
- Minimal hud, not to a crazy degree but it'd be best not to have tons of icons everywhere.
- Less focus on boring ass quests, more on exploration and randomly generated encounters
- Crazy awesome random shit, just like with the A-Life system.

Personally, if they couldn't have continued with S.T.A.L.K.E.R. and wanted to do something else, I reckon they should've decided to make a much less risky, singleplayer, maybe PC only title first. But eh, we'll see how it goes.

Small server size, greater small group PVE focus, but also having a solid faction system to drive the PVP would work nicely for me. Being able to kill noobs who come from MMO's and don't know which end of the gun the bullets come out of, all the while feel like I'm still playing a fairly environment centered game (which was the most important part of STALKER).

It may not be STALKER 2, but it should tide me over until those guys finish modding SoC into the CryEngine (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rU5GvjxX5rw&feature=related).

Scrumpmonkey:
Here is a bit of a wishlist;

-Instanced underground areas
-Vast, empty expances.
-Dynamic stashes.
-A starting 'cordon' where most players will return/trade/sleep to keep the deep zone sparce.
-Mutants, factions, weapon mods, suit upgrades and absolutely no traditional leveling system.
-Artifacts
-Player Vs. Enviroment focus.
-Anomalies

So yeah. Basically STALKER :P

But loads bigger. Need someplace to keep all those people. :P

Also, anyone else want PVP always on? 'Cause I do. Make wandering into the zone that much more dangerous. But, make the cordon have PVP off, to make sure noobs don't get ganked right out of the starting gate. Finally, have players form their own factions, EVE style and rule the zone. Have no "official" territory to capture. Have it all run and patrolled by players.

Atmosphere.

Thats it. That is all it needs.

And thats impossible in a F2P MMO.

It needs to be a singleplayer game and not an MMO. That is the only way it would not get on my nerves but that obviously isn't going to happen so I lose. Basically everything I want in STALKER is impossible in an MMO setting. Hell, everything I like about games is pretty much impossible in an MMO setting.

Korten12:

SmashLovesTitanQuest:
Atmosphere.

Thats it. That is all it needs.

And thats impossible in a F2P MMO.

Not impossible, just never done. With the rise in quality of F2P titles, it's easy to see it having good atmosphere if they do it right.

I SELL U 5 GOLD CAMO MP5 HUEHUEHUEHUE

See what I mean?

BreakfastMan:
[quote="Scrumpmonkey" post="9.372989.14400916"]SNIP
Finally, have players form their own factions, EVE style and rule the zone. Have no "official" territory to capture. Have it all run and patrolled by players.

Please take following post with this note: I have never played S.T.A.L.K.E.R, I really like games like it and from what I have seen S.T.A.L.K.E.R looks fun.

What you have said right there is my reply to ANYTHING MMO.

Mass Effect
Skyrim
Oblivion
Fallout
Mount and Blade

etc.

The biggest thing is that having players run their own camps, own territory and run their own army. Imagine a guild (clan or whatever) that finds a sweet ruined building and sets up camp. Soon they send out patrols, scavenging for supplies. They might encounter other players, who may join them or fight them.

They could build up an army and then raid an enemy base. It would be like ArmA 2 made MMO. If you have ever read the comic Blastwave, who doesn't want to scurry around a ruined city, fighting other armies or hiding, setting up ambushes.

Number one rule, always have PvP on (except for the starting area). I mean everywhere. Even the trading centre. A guild could take it over, charging people to use it or forcing them to trade locally or using caravans. But such dickerry wouldn't go unchecked. There would be no better incentive for alliances than dicks forcing people to pay to enter the main trading area.

The thing is, this would keep a game alive. This game would practically never die. Because the players run it. The knights/Stalkers/Brothers of Steels etc. would attack an area full of recently attacked refugees and then once those people get word to other bastions, the full force response comes.

This idea hinges on many things:

1. Deployable items. Beds chests tents walls barricades turrets etc.
2. No global chat or trade chat or anything like that. Only local chat and have it so you can write a letter, hand it over to a courier (a player) who then transports it without you having to travel to speak to people. Mics should be able to work, and have it function so the closer you are, the easier it is to hear someone.
3. Vehicles of a sort IF IT FITS WITH LORE. Yes, you should be able to jump in an Enclave dropship. But in the same way, what happens when half of your team gets shot down and stuck with no food.
4. Food (and/or water) bars. In the starter area, every how ever many hours players can get new food so they don't die within their first few hours. But only enough food to keep them alive.
5. Radios. This should work on different frequencies so people could use their own frequency. They MUST have limited range though. Only a short range.
6. Make stealth entirely possible. Maybe if the game allows have motion sensors, but make it so it only comes up as a blip on a screen connected to said sensor. NEVER EVER have names appear above heads.
7. There are a few more, but my hands are getting tired.
8. ALSO! PRISONERS! Make it so you can knock people out, but make sure it is handled well. Only people VERY low on health can be knocked out. You can tie people up, but they can attempt to escape. You can't breach a camp? Get a traitor to open the gate. That doesn't work? Strap a prisoner with explosives and send him straight at the walls.
9. Make it loot like a normal game. Yes, you can just pick up and use a minigun if you kill someone with it. This makes camps or hidden supply caches useful as hell!
10. MAKE SURE THERE IS ALWAYS PvE. It makes the world seem so much bigger. However, make it so if people wipe out all monsters warriors etc. in an area, it takes a while for them to return and they will RETURN, as in travel in from the map edge and make their way across. This makes encounters a LOT more random.

EDIT:
This makes EVERY player useful. Some people just wanna deliver letters for a price, some like setting up camps, some are great at ambushes or running a squad. The idea is, EVERYONE would be useful. The people who have the biggest guns only survive because the clans help protect them. I doubt anyone who constantly attacks people could survive for long. Someone who just hides out and stays to them self might.

Matthew94:
Have no leveling or XP at all.

Let us have warring factions that take territory like in CS.

Basically this.
I think they did mention that they'd add that "Warring Factions" feature in.

No Global chat because that ruins the whole point of the "Isolation feeling", only a local chat and (If they allow it) a Mic chat based on distance.

Emissions from Call of Pripyat added in anyone?

I would just want it to be a really Co-op based game. Sure PvP could be implemented but i'd rather PvE.

Im kind of excited since I am just imagining my time in STALKER but playing it with friends too. I heard something about some kind of STALKRER co-op mod for Clear sky but was never able to find anything about it.

BreakfastMan:

Scrumpmonkey:
Here is a bit of a wishlist;

-Instanced underground areas
-Vast, empty expances.
-Dynamic stashes.
-A starting 'cordon' where most players will return/trade/sleep to keep the deep zone sparce.
-Mutants, factions, weapon mods, suit upgrades and absolutely no traditional leveling system.
-Artifacts
-Player Vs. Enviroment focus.
-Anomalies

So yeah. Basically STALKER :P

But loads bigger. Need someplace to keep all those people. :P

Also, anyone else want PVP always on? 'Cause I do. Make wandering into the zone that much more dangerous. But, make the cordon have PVP off, to make sure noobs don't get ganked right out of the starting gate. Finally, have players form their own factions, EVE style and rule the zone. Have no "official" territory to capture. Have it all run and patrolled by players.

Agree in principle but don't think it would work with STALKER. In Eve you can have fleet battles with thousands of people. In STALKER you should be looking at no more than a 100 or so people fighting over a warehouse district otherwise it wouldn't feel right.

What if they use a Dark/Demon's Souls model? There can be a rookie camp or something that's kinda the main hub, but once you actually get out and start stalkin', other players just randomly drop in and out of whatever zone you're in? Maybe they help you secure an office building to split the loot, maybe he waits outside and ganks you after you do all the hard work? Implement a punishment or "most-wanted" system for balance, and keep the number of players in an area to the low teens or twenties.

Lil_Rimmy:
snippage

That would all be cool, but you'd have to have some sort of system in check to make sure some group doesn't just take over everything or severely limit the amount of influence a single faction can have over the game world.

The whole prisoners thing would be interesting, but you wouldn't want to disadvantage a captured player too much, for instance it'd suck if you get abducted in your sleep and then thrown in a cage to rot, forever.
It could be great if PvP was somewhat limited and there were consequences to mindlessly killing neutral players. Say if you kill a guy you get a bounty on your head and the dead guy's faction might declare war on yours. You may have had the short term benefit of killing a dude and taking his stuff, but now you'll have to be extra careful since it's open season on your ass.
On the other hand you might manage to capture a guy instead of fragging him and hold him for ransom, releasing him to his buddies in exchange for gear, territory or even another prisoner. Since you haven't killed the guy you don't get the bounty and your relationship with that faction isn't as screwed.

This sort of thing would be cool if it worked, but would be very hard to implement properly in game whilst keeping it fair.