Anomaly 1.5 (Features)

 S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Anomaly 1.5
- Started: 2018/9/10
- Finished: 2018/12/24

List of Features


Story:
------
- Integrated "Lost of the Zone" storylines addon into Anomaly. A set of 3 storylines surrounds old and new characers and events:
1. Part 1 - Living Legend: a famous stalker has returned to the Zone. Pursue him in order to obtain his invaluable knowledge.
2. Part 2 - Mortal Sin: a sinister faction emerges from obscurity to take over the Zone. You are the only one who can stop them.
3. Part 3 - Operation Afterglow: the Zone attracts a lot of attention. However, some people believe that its many secrets are best kept hidden.
- "Mysteries of the Zone", "Lost to the Zone" and DRX Questlines are all merged inside Story mode so the player can play what he wants. They are not available for Warfare and Azazel mode.
- All storylines won't be available at the start of the game. Ask stalkers around for new information or rumors. Some are willing to give you leads.
- Tasks to disable Brain Scorcher and Miracle Machine will be given to the player upon purchasing good/bar psi-helmet from prof. Sakharov, not at the start of the game.


Dialog and Quests:
------------------
- Added new 3 dynamic quests, given by common npcs:
- Deliver important packages from stalkers to their friends in far locations
- Take measurements of anomolous fields using a special device (ecologists, clear sky)
- Search and find the missing squad, report back with your findings to their friends
- Added new task from Griffin to investigate Lab X8 to gather documents
- Added new task from Aslan to clean Dead City from Mutants
- Added new task for freedom, duty, military leaders to pull undercover agent out before he get exposed.
- Added tasks from Hermann to plant Anomaly Scanners (CoP)
- Expanded the items pool for all fetch quests.
- Added new dialog for traders to borrow money. You can't trade with the trader you own him money unless if you pay off your debt + %50 interest
- Added new dialog for many traders to buy extra equipment, the player can buy a set of items at once (medical / food / ammo) if he has a hight rank
- Updated (unlock map routes) dialog. It no longer shows you every hidden route available. Only the ones you can reach them from discovered maps.
- Bounty tasks will show info (name, faction, location) about targets before accepting them. They can show up to 3 different targets
- Task givers won't ask you to target someone in monolith areas (CNPP, Generators, Pripyat, Radar)
- Guide Job has been updated: the player will no longer need to have or pay money back for failing. He will lose rep upon canceling the task, and will get half the reward after reaching the distination too late.

Faction Bribe:
1. Many special characters have connections around the zone, talk to them and provide a payment to bribe an enemy faction temporarily.
2. You can bribe a faction for 2 or 4 days, then things will return to the old way.
3. During the bribe, members of the enemy faction won't shoot you at sight. On the other hand, you better keep your distance.

- Added new dialog for medics. You can choose between healing wounds, radiation or both
- General escort service: you can ask natural npcs to join your company and provide protection for a fee, the service is offered for a day or two. The escort squad will decline if you travel to abounded locations or monolith areas.
- Added new dialog for companions for item swap. The player can let his companion carry their items as long as items don't exceed the max carry weight.
- Added more information dialog for common npcs
- Hip's dialog has been re-written for better story telling


A-Life:
-------
- Massive changes to alife scripts to improve squads behaviour in general
- Added the (Offline combat simulator): A new feature\option that allows squads in other levels to engage in battles with nearby enemies.
- Sometimes, faction members in the other parts of the zone will send news regarding their true situation and who they are fighting with.
- When (Dynamic Faction Relation) is enabled, the battles in other maps affect the relations between different factions instead of being player-focus.
- Squads will travel more usually to the other parts of the Zone
- On high ranks or really bad reputation, you'll attract enough attention. Someone might end up putting a bounty on your head.
- Added the "blind zombie". A new high-tier, rare zombie type with psi ability.
- Underground and labs levels will foreseen more dynamic mutant spawns.
- Monolith squads relations among themselves has been changed to "friend"
- Monolith members will not send chattery dynamic news, only important news like enemy warnings and shootouts.
- Everytime you start a new game, the static items you usually see around will be randomized. And their availability is tied to the progression difficulty you choose.
- Stalkers will stop looting when they exceed the weight limit in their inventories (60 kg)
- Restored "Lukash" instead of "Miklyha" as freedom leader
- Companions will be auto-healed 10% of their health every 10 seconds
- Added glue under Hermann's shoes so he doesn't keep moving and rotating inside Jupiter mobile lab like the little bitch he is.
- "Doc" will camp at one location (the hideout in north-west of Great Swamp) to avoid him being free dog food as usual.
- Removed Yanov Station, Mobile Bunker and Zaton ship from non-combat zone (need logic test)
- Miracle Machine, Brain Scorcher and Generators will be turned off outside of Story mode
- Fixed a case with the mercs in Outskirts being hostile even after messaging the player, however they will stay enemies to duty, military and monolith players.
- Fixed cases where special characters send general news.
- Fixed a problem with Yar and Cashier in Outskirts where player can't talk to them.


Visuals and Atmosphere:
-----------------------
- The weather and lighting has been completely revamped
- Added FXAA support (DX9+)
- Added HUD Inertion when aiming with weapons.
- Enabled tree swing in storm and rain weather (DX9+)
- Added new small flickering light effect for flashlights
- Improved a lot of textures related to trees, terrains, bushes, grass and more
- Improved rain visuals and added dynamic rain and wind sound effects
- Updated dynamic mask overlay textures
- Fix display on HUD of transparent surfaces
- Added glow effect for Fruit Punch and Electro anomalies
- Updated the loading screen, all shots are taken from the game
- Enabled and modified muzzle fire for all weapons
- Reduced radiation screen effect power for less noise overlay
- HUD effects on bleeding and low health (such as blackout) will play on worse health conditions, this has been done to make them less spammy in general
- Added new checkboxes in weather settings to enable/disable new atmosphere effects
- Fixed M4 model (removed ironsight from front of scope)
- Modified and fixed axes (new textures, fixed model sizes so if you drop them they are not tiny)


Warfare (WIP):
--------------
- Warfare has been ported to Anomaly as a new optional mode
- The mode simulates a war between factions in a dynamic fashion, and allows the player to take control over his faction
- It can be toggled from new game menu. Not compatible with Story mode.
- Added new squads for warfare (bartenders and medics), they can fill jobs of dead characters with similar rules in captured locations


Disguise System:
----------------
- Updated the disguise system with a whole new dynamic system.
- Your disguise is determined by your general equipment and behaviour, and affected by NPCs memory, awareness and other details.
- While disguised, a small bar will appear on the HUD that represents the "suspicion" level coming from surrounding NPCs.
- All disguise factors are controllable in-game (extra options). Technical values are controllable through a small config (configs\plugins\disguise.ltx)
- You can't disguise as a monolith member (balance and exploit reasons)

General:
--------
- Expanded the (Progression Difficulty) options for more customization. And added (Stamina Loss) factor to control player's power loss by movement and weight.
- Companions will catch up with the player by a running animation when they are far away
- Azazel mode will give a fitting outfit for the possessed npc
- Added new map markers for traders and bartenders to distinguish them from other special characters of  different rules
- Restored location discovery, with better script and less hooks (disabled in Warfare)
- Radios around the zone will play tracks from Zone FM channel synchronously
- You won't receive dynamic news from the network if the PDA is unequiped or on low-power
- Campfire save mode will no longer need you to interact with campfires to save. Simple get close to a campfire and save normally

Accessible PDAs:
1. PDAs found on corpses can be viewed by the player to dig the messages inside
2. Messages related to the dead stalker can be about anything, search for any important info you can find.
3. Sometime you will come across encrypted PDAs. Talk to mechanics and they will solve the problem for a small fee

- Added new 4 achievements (Infantile Pleasure) (Recycler) (Artificer Eagerness) (Unforeseen Guest)
- Changed "Mechanized Warfare" achievement reward: Bonus items used in repairs are more effective.
- The player will receive 2 F1 Grenades in the 7th Arena fight
- Bunker doors in Jupiter and Yantar will work individually, this should revolve problems regarding npcs stuck between them
- Changed the crosshair into a small white dot
- Added (Random Location) option for Faction Select menu
- Expanded the craft pool to include the new items
- Expanded the encyclopedia to include articles about the new content
- Nerfed the "Lurker", it's less tanky now
- Choosing Azazel mode in new game will unlock all routes, this has been done to prevent cases of possessing someone in a blocked map.
- Removed mine fields in Limansk and Cordon
- Replaced the loading screen tips from Misery


Inventory:
----------
- Added New dynamic slots (knife, binoculars, detector, grenade, backpack, PDA, headlamp and bolt)
- Backpacks are essential equipment to increase the carry weight while equipped
- Hold CTRL and double-click stacked items to move the whole sack
- Added The "RF Receiver" device. A general-use/quest detector that can be set and used to catch nearby radio signals.
- RF transmitters are set around the zone by many stalkers for various purposes. With the right frequencies, the The "RF Receiver" might come in handy for catching signals and tracing RF sources.
- Reworked the battery system as the following:
- Removed the UPD, all devices will work independently based on their own power
- The amount of power left in devices and batteries is represented by condition bar.
- Drag and drop batteries on a device to put them in
- You can extract batteries from a device by the new (unpack batteries) option
- All devices have their own power consumption. Better devices tend to consume power faster than their older variants
- Replaced (Use Battery) option with (Battery Power Consumption) factor, values range between 0.1 to 10
- Better batteries variants have been removed, they no longer have a purpose (along with empty ones)

Updated the "Geiger counter" as the following:
1. GC is now a detector with its own model
2. Using it will show the radiation value on the HUD (near health bar)
3. GC has 3 modes: Active (show current values only when held) - Continuous (show current values always as long as its in inventory) -  Toggle (show value upon pressing a keybind as long as its in inventory)

- Added new 2 PDAs, better PDAs have better GPS module that can show nearby npcs locations with better range (Remove GPS Tracker, it no longer has a purpose)
- Added new 3 types of head lamp (come with Nightvision). All unnecessary NV upgrades for outfits and helmets have been removed.
- Added new special weapon (TOZ-34 "Bull"), Nimble sells it (created by Akinaro)
- Added the FAMAS to the game, can be bought from Skinflint
- Restored the Pathfinder suit in Clear Sky trader's profile
- Looted money will no longer appear as news. Instead, its an item that can be looted from corpses. Looted money will be automatically added to actor's wallet
- Amount of looted money varies between npcs/ranks. Using it will add the money to player's wallet
- "Old Coins" are usable, the player will earn few rubles in their wallet.
- "Box of Matches" can be bought from barkeepers instead of local traders
- "Hunter's Kit" acts as a backpack. Equipping it will give carry weight and a chance of looting bonus mutant parts
- Added a new item action (details), shows all details regarding the selected item in a GUI window. Details can be about: condition, ammo, attachments, components, compatible repair kits, upgrades, upgrade parts and many others
- Changed disassembling tools (Swiss knife, Grooming kit, Multitool) to have condition instead of uses. When they are used for disassembly, they will degrade.
- Disassembling tools can be repairing using "Sharping Stones"
- Reading an anomaly map will open all routes connected to the said map
- Using some medical items will give an empty syringe back
- Added faction patches for Sin and ISG

Bolts management:
1. Added the possibility of having limited amount of bolts. The feature is optional and enabled for Survivalist difficulty by default (Progression options)
2. Bolts have 2 variants: vanilla bolts and empty bullets. They can be found everywhere.
3. All traders sell bolt packs, every pack contains about 20 to 30 bolts.

- Updated Binoculars icon to be more fitting
- Changed AUG ammunition to use 5.56 rounds, and Renamed a lot of weapons names to match real-life equivalents
- Reduced the radiation output from Oasis and Compass artefacts, they can be contained in AAM containers now


Technical:
----------
- Organized all game files
- Fixed cases of quests failing immediately after accepting them
- Fixed bugged Arena dialog that keep rewarding the player with infinite rewards
- Fixed a case where knives don't degradate upon looting all mutant parts
- Fixed a case where crows might prevent the actor from fast traveling #_#
- Fixed a crash related to Azazel mode (fail to generate proper outfit)
- Fixed a case with dropping tents getting deployed.
- Fixed a typo in Meeker's dialog that prevents you from acquiring Merc SEVA
- Fixed some weapon upgrades related to Handeling showing negative values
- Fixed a lot of issues and typos with outfits and their upgrades (Credit goes to Just Monika, koray79, Namelesswonder )
- Fixed readings of missing sky-boxes textures
- Fixed crashes related to MLR and Hip quests
- Fixed cases of finding old repair toolkits in stashes
- Fixed cases of finding "Black Spray" artefact on cats
- Fixed a issue with Loner guide (Zaton) not showing dialog to travel to Yanov Station
- Fixed broken dialog for Mercenary guide (Zaton)
- Moved all Fast Travel and Backpack Travel options into (Extra Options Menu). They have their own tab.
- Moved (Weapon Degradation) option to (Progression) options menu
- Removed (AIdie in anomalies) option to avoid AI issues with npcs.
- Removed (Loot money on corpse) option, it became an integerated feature
- Removed (Debug Autosave) option for being pointless
- Moved (Thirst Simulation), (Use Battery), (Dark Mode) from gameplay options to be under progression difficulty options
- Updated achievements script, and fixed all broken achievements.
- "Doc" smart terrain is switched off to prevent other mutants/stalkers from reaching it
- Fixed a case with G3 not being able to fire regular 7.62x51 AP rounds
- Added supressor hud model for the FN57 (changed the supressor used from the gemtech to the sil_57)
- Removed duplicated ammo sections in weapons files
- Fixed Mison scope
- Moved (Disguise System) option from gameplay options to be under disguise menu options
- Fixed issues related to Lurker, Psy-sucker and Karlik classes that might cause errors and log spam in the console
- Fixed Bandit trader in Truck Cemetery having limited amount of money
- Faction patches found on corpses appear only if they're killed by the player
- Increased "time_factor" from 4 to 6 for faster time and events.
- Fixed a case where player gain goodwill with special traders
- Fixed fetch supplies tasks not working properly with multi-use items
- Fixed a case with "Putinka Vodka" can't be gathered as multi-use item
- Fixed a case where special characters won't give other tasks after you accept DRX Questlines for them
- Fixed a case of having duplicated "AWR selling parts" dialog for mechanics
- Fixed Ak-12 using 7.62 silencer instead of 5.45 variant
- Fixed an identical section inv_name for Galil 4.0x scope
- Fixed second death sounds
- Added a blacklist for unreachable stashes (this works on new game)
- Fixed weapons with 9x39 cartridge being repairable with 5.45/5.56 repair kits
- Fixed the "Monolith" artefact not being visible when dropped




Developers:
-----------
- Searge (Project Lead, Engine)
- strelocc (Scripting and logic)
- meatchunk (Visuals and atmosphere)
- Tronex (Scripting, Sounds)


Credits:
--------
- Akinaro (textures and models)
- SarisKhan (Lost to the Zone creator)
- Werejew (Warfare creator)
- Davyd McColl (Stalker weather tweaker)
- Red Forest Cake (grammer and improved dialog)
- PYP (Weapon fixes)
- Killeon (improved strings)
- ѪBob (organized xml profiles)
- DesmanMetzger (new message for pdas)
- Grey (real weapons strings)
- Just Monika (fixed upgrades)
- Salty (new information dialog for npcs)
- Acinu (Improved strings for outfits/weapons desc)
- Хрона (weapon fixes)

Special thanks to Call of Chenobyl, A.R.E.A, Dead Air developers and Skygod for inspirations and assets. And to Exo-Stalker for the great Discord server and community.