Bay 12 Games Forum

Sorry but i don't want to search the entire thread to find out but how do you get into the closed alpha for this game?

Roadside Picnic by the Strugatsky brothers is a classic. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roadside_Picnic

Hard to tell if it is what you want or not. It is bound o be different that what you read so far as it was written by Soviet authors in the 70's. Their mindset was different than that of western scifi writers and the books is more philosophical that what you would expect from the genre. The characters are pretty well thought-out and believable. Can't tell whether it's "realistic" though as the whole point of the book is that advanced alien technology is completely incomprehensible to us in the same way as our trash after a picnic is to animals. No technobabble or explanations are given to the SciFi stuff that happens. It's pretty short and reads easily.

The novel was an inspiration for the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. series of video games.

That the best thing about Magna Mundi is that as long as you don't play an overpowered country and give yourself ambitious goal it can stay interesting throughout the entire timeline. There will be enemies that are stronger then you and facing them off i gives the game better dynamic. In vanilla EU3 you would become an unstoppable superpower within the first 200 years if you played decently with a medium power and after that its just whether you want to screw around and conquer some AI nations that can't muster a proper defense. 

Here is a screen from my latest Magna Mundi ultimate game as Bavaria. The game sofar can be summarizedd by two words "Dat Austria".



The reformation has kicked and Bohemia is the leader of the protestants in the Empire. Austria is Emperor and leads a personal Union with defender of the catholic faith Spain. I'm lucky to be on their side in the religious turmoil but my ambition is to become emperor which will  be impossible to pull off without getting on the bad side of Austria-Hungary. Heck, even I were to control the Imperial Demense of Burgundy and Netherlands I'm not sure if I could take on the BBW(Big Bad White).

As you can see the other neighboring superpower France is in shambles after a over 20 year face off with the Emperor and allies. I hoped to use my espionage National Idea and spies to destabilize but alas they stayed at +3 stab throughout the massive conflict.

Ottomans are beign very timid this game. They were even allied with the Emperor for a moment. I'm rooting for them to send an incursion into the balkans while the reformation is underway so that Austria will have more important matters to attend to than my violations of Imperial Law .

Game is awesome. Can't wait for updates with more content. Is there only one map available?

mod trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vcNylGYq-v4

I'm a fan of this game series. I find the setting and atmosphere very immersive. The first S.T.A.L.K.E.R. even inspired me to to read the original Roadside Picnic SF novel by the Strugatsky brothers. I was very impressed by the book. The thing that started bothering me was the games genre. An FPS game is not the best medium through which to picture the horror of the Zone. In a game where you can just waltz back to your last save when you take a bullet or get crushed to pulp by an anomaly.  What would be my dream would be to have a realistic permadeath Roguelike in the setting.

Imagine actually having to weigh your chances of nabbing the artifact from the center of that anomalous field instead of just reloading a few times and getting it anyway. I want to get the feeling of what such a non existent Roguelike would play like by playing Call of Pripyat Ironman mode(no save-reloading, if I die in game this LP is over) on Master difficulty. Hopefully also showcasing some of the cool visuals from the new Complete modpack(in horrible .jpg screenshot format). I will play very cautiously, planning beforehand my expeditions from the safe areas and taking screenshots every few steps if something interesting occurs.

No LP is interesting without some form of interaction from the viewers. I will post polls to tell me where to go for the next expedition.

Let's get started then:

Backstory!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wY3jDDnUZno&feature=related

Some words:
Zone - bad place around Czernobyl NPP. Weird shit happens here.
Anomaly - Weird shit. Basically invisible or hard to see deathtraps that occur naturally in the Zone, can kill you with the power they are aligned with.
Artifact - useful objects that form near anomalies and share some of its alignment. They should be found, harvested and sold to scientists, that is why most of them reach the black market instead.
Stalkers - guy that come to the zone to collect artifacts.


Mayor Degtyarev:

My squadmates and guide left me two hours ago, as I entered territory that was outside the army's jurisdictions. They told me to held directly south, to an area called Zaton, there I would find the local stalker community and blend in posing to be another loner willing to test his luck in the center of the Zone. My assignment is to examine the wreckage of five Stingray helicopters that crashed over the Zone, investigate the cause of the operations failure and locate any surviving crew. My first priority however is to become accustomed to the center of the Zone and it's resident stalkers. My  extensive training in Zone operations gives me an edge over all but the most experienced stalkers but in regards to the center of the Zone I rely strictly on their knowledge of local hazards.

I take a moment to browse my belongings:



I am running low on supplies and will need better equipment to tackle the challenges ahead. A source of income will probably be a necessity. Jobs from the local stalker leaders are always preferable to solo artifact hunting.

As I lift my nose for my rucksack I hear the sound of a conversation far away and notice two individuals in stalker gear brandishing assault rifles walking my way through the rain. Knowing that local loners do not shoot others on sight I raise my hands in sign of peace and as they reply I approach with my gun muzzle pointed down, all according to stalker protocol.


I ask them for the location of the nearest stalker camp and they instruct me that the nearest safe area,  Skadovsk is just beyond the hill and a short walk south. It is placed inside a derelict ship and is a strict no-fire zone. Both brigands and the independent stalkers they hunt for come to the area for  recreation and to hide from emissions.

I say goodbye to my fellow stalkers and headed for Skadovsk. After I ascended the hill only a short strip of wetland separated me from the ship. I was relatively lucky on my journey here and managed to avoid any contact with the areas sizable mutant population. Traversing the tall grass in Zaton runs risk of a close encounter with one such beast and so I did my best to avoid the patches.



Having finally reached the ship I stood before the door and was told to holster my weapon wait comlink. I obeyed and the doors automatic lock disengaged.



Entering the bar, I greet with the residing stalkers and speak to their leader, nicknamed Beard and intorduce myself as a new rookie in Skadovsk. Apparently stalker tradition, mentioning that you are new to the area immediately results in a plethora of job offers from the more experienced. Beard wants me to inspect a peculiar and possibly anomalous glow emanating from a trawler nearby. The ship contains some anomalies but has been dry of valuable artifacts for quite some time and quite a few emissions. After the last one however a peculiar blue glow began emanating from the cabin and he want me to investigate. He say's its a freebee, because I'm new, I get the opportunity for some easy snag. I am reluctant to trust these people but I pretend to eagerly accept in order to gain their trust and a fools reputation will likely curb any suspicion they have of me.



I also meet with the local bandit leader Sultan, a man some reputation, mostly bad. He guaranteed me safe passage and no harassment from his bandits and mentioned having some assignments of “the money making kind” for me if I'm interested. I feel however that siding with the bandit would run risk of jeopardizing my entire mission but I need Sultan to think I can be of use so he doesn't order his goons to follow me and take me out.



I spend the rest of the evening resting and chatting with the other bar residents. The main topics is of course several dead rookies that have been found near camp recently and several others missing. This would not even be worth mentioning by the vodka glass if not for the fact that the cadavers were found to be dried clean of blood. That is the modus operanti of a particularly type of mutant called a Bloodsucker, an beast infamous for hunting stalkers en mass and attacking stealthily and without warning. The local mutant hunters are already thinking of how to find and kill the beast and obviously, they offer me to investigate. I've learned in my training however to avoid places know for Bloodsucker activity at all cost as they can bring death even to squads of equipped soldiers. Chances of surviving an encounter for me are slim, at least until I can acquire a suitable weapon to combat it, like a shotgun.

I went to lay down on a bunk that was apparently occupied by one of the dead rookies, he won't be needing it any more.



I need to decide where to head out tomorrow for my first scouting expedition. I pulled out my PDA with satellite scans of the area surrounding Skadovsk. I add everything I found out in the bar about the surroundings to the map.



OOC: I will add a poll if more people become interested. Rights now just post where you think I should go first.

Hi I'm going to try and install this game on my netbook.

How do i get my installation up - to -date. I can't seem to find this info. Is using the 491 installer and applying patch 540 all I need to do?