I'm a huge S.T.A.L.K.E.R fan and I want to bring your attention to a mod called Lost Alpha. This has been in the making for years and i'd say it's one of the most ambitious mod ever. This basically makes the game like it was supposed to be back in 2003 with a huge sprawling world that you could quest in and explore.
Please note that this isn't a mod as such, but a whole new game based on the old S.T.A.L.K.E.R builds therefore an original version/copy of S.T.A.L.K.E.R is not needed, this is download and play.
Coming Soon
Have you ever dreamt about playing the old, forgotten S.T.A.L.K.E.R. ?
We were amazed by GSC's work when they released the first S.T.A.L.K.E.R. screenshots in 2002. The old design, and atmosphere was stunning and we couldn't believe in our eyes. Later in 2005 things has changed. They redesigned almost all old levels. Some of them became smaller, simpler (still nice, but different), and some levels were removed. After the release in 2007 we played the game a lot, and quickly noticed that some areas are missing. We opened forums, and talked countless nights about those for almost a year. Nowdays we could say, we have a full vision about GSC's old levels, due to the collected materials, videos and forgotten screenshots. We decided to remake those stunning areas, maybe they won't be the same, but we will try everything to make them look really nice, as we always wanted to see them. In early 2009, GSC released a build from 2004, which contained many old materials. We used some of the sdk objects for the level remakes, but adjusted (and bugfixed) them for our liking, also we didn't throw out our own levels. So expect to see our own Darkscape, Dead City, Rostok Factory and some more in Lost Alpha
Also need to say, Lost Alpha addon is not just about levels and levels. We will try to make a somewhat, but not fully restricted alife, and deliver a lot of new, never seen features, among with some old ones, which many people wanted to see for long. If you are interested in, check the Features menu for FAQ, Interview, Features List, and many more. Also do not forget to check the gallery, and the movies. All comments are welcome, also we are glad to see suggestions too, however at this stage those won't be considered. Thanks for your understanding!
Lost Alpha FAQ:
Q: Whats are pc reqs for LA?
A: Well it definitely needs a stronger pc, than SoC, you can find some more info here: Forum.stalker.pl
Q: Will you make LA on CoP engine?
A: No.LA is based on SoC engine, which makes it truely atmospheric, and memorable.
Q: Don't you want to use any sources from CoP?
A: Maybe some models, textures etc, nothing more.
Q: What about storyline? Is it ready?
A: Yes its ready. We started to implement it into the game in early January, 2011.
Q: What can you say about it?
A: It won't change the world, but will bring smile on our fans' face
Q: Will you add free play function in game?
A: Yes, after finishing the story, you can go back and do some sidequests, which will only appear in the jobs list after the ending.
Q: Don't you need beta-testers?
A: We carefully select the beta testers. No need to apply, we will find you!
Q: Will you release a beta version of Lost Alpha?
A: No. We won't release half-made projects. Please do not beg for it, it won't change anything.
Q: I can't make mods, but want to help you anyway, what can i do?
A: You can donate to us. Everybody who will donate, can send us a character description with name, short bio and equipment list, which he would like to see in game. Also donators will be included in credits. We have webmoney and paypal accounts. For more info, drop us a pm or email.
Q: Will you add any secrets to the game?
A: Yes. If you played Priboi Story, you know we like secrets
Q: What about physics?
A: It will be "more realistic" with ragdoll implemented from old builds. However, what can not be fixed, won't be fixed. Don't expect us to rewrite the ode engine.
Q: Will we be able to kill crows?
A: Yes.
Q: Hud will be used from SoC?
A: We would like to make it more similar to the old style.
Q: Will you replace torchlight?
A: Nope. It's good as-is. However you will have to put it on your belt in order to make it work, and you will need batteries for it.
Q: Will you remake global map?
A: Yes of course. But let's not talk about it until the release
Q: Did you leave any vanilla SoC levels?
A: SoC Yantar, but drastically changed it, and of course the lab under it (x16)
Q: How will you make sleeping? Through the sleeping bag or inventory?
A: There will be sleep-bags, as it's really fast, convenient way, and more realistic than a button. Of course there will be sleepzones, which means, you can only sleep in safe areas.
Q: Will you include Panoramic Mod by Argus?
A: The creator of Atmosfear mod (Cromm Cruac) joined us to make some nice weather for the R2 render, so you can expect real good panoramas, but only on r2 render.
Q: Will you make pda-chat like in 1935 build?
A: Yes, for more details check our videos here or on youtube
Q: Will you make new guns?
A: Yes. We will add 3 new weapons, 3 own made little pistols, and the old ak74 and possibly the old fn2000, just for nostalgia.
Q: Will you make faction wars?
A: No, it wasn't planned.
Q: Any new factions will be?
A: Sin aka dark stalkers. They are needed for the story, and of course, there were planned in old stalker too.
Q: Will you add bullet decals on bodies?
A: Yes.
Q: And what about car doors?
A: They are all fine, you can open-close them as you like. You can also use the trunk of the cars to store some loot.
Q: Will you make a weapon upgrade system like in CS?
A: Our upgrade system is based on cs-cop version, you can see it in action in one of the 3 alpha format videos.
Q: Will there be detectors to looking for artifacts?
A: There will be detectors, but they will only help to get in the anomaly zones.
Q: How much LA will "weight"?
A: Currently its 13-14 GB. We removed all unnecessary SoC files, the rest is needed, and it will come with nice installer, so you won't need to edit/merge/move anything, just install & play. The game is packed to xray database packs, which helps to reduce size as well, plus easier to handle. No worries, all available db unpackers can unpack them. The game will be packed with 7z zip as well, so the packed size is around 4.7 GB (2012.05.15.)
Q: What time of year will be in game?
A: Summer, but this does not mean that all levels will be green. You will see dried levels, as well as beautifully overgrown, green areas
Q: If some new builds appear in the network what will you do?
A: GSC deleted all old builds, but before we had the opportunity to check them, and they let one of our member to release them slowly for the fans, to keep the stalker mod-community alive even longer. So we can safely say, there aren't any builds which could be harmful for our project, and since now all oldies were released, any modder can try to make his own dream game, of course new content is always more welcoming, than using old materials made by other people.
Q: Did you add back rats?
A: Yes, they look quite funny. And since now we have rats, we renamed the rodent specie to ratwolf, since it perfectly fits. They are big rats, and really aggressive
Q: Will you return old mutants?
A: Yes. All of them we could find in soc gamedata, plus the green dwarf, and some custom made swampbeasts, which are based on the poltergeist's visible form. We have other new monsters in plans too, but we can not promise that they will be ready till the release.
Q: What kind of patch will be needed?
A: Lost Alpha is based on a beta patch, called 1.0007. This was never released to the public, but we had the opportunity to get it, and fix it up. The engine is now totally upgraded, runs better than ever. This means, you don't need any SoC patches for LA, since now it became a standalone (but still free) game.
Q: How will this work with Steam version of SoC?
A: You can put LA in steam, if you want to, but since LA is standalone game, SoC is not needed for it to run.
Q: Will we see military patrols?
A: Yes. They usually check the well known paths, but no need to be hostile with them. You can stay neutral, if you follow their rules. Later in storyline you can even cooperate with them in some tasks.
Q: Will you make yellow karlito?
A: We tried, but the guy who was working on it left us long ago, and it wasn't finished. We might include the model in LA, if we can reach Nova to send it to us.
Q: What about the ballistic of weapons?
A: Ballistic won't be changed, with the upgrading system, you can upgrade your weapons.
Q: Will be there blowouts and how will they look?
A: There will be random blowouts, which is default in nowadays mods. You will be able to hide from them in special shelters, which you will see marked on your map as soon as the fun begins. They won't give 100% protection, but you will survive easily. Npc will go to shelter too, if they find one. If not, they will run around in panic, or attack an other shelter. Birds will fall down (as in Priboi Story), animals will go crazy and attack camps... If you go underground, you will get the feeling of the blowout too, which we call "underground blowout". You saw these in Priboi Story already
Q: What kind of hud will you use?
A: Hud changes all the time. We cant say which will be the last. You can see the latest, and probably the last version on the screenshots.
Q: Will NPCs be able to avoid anomalies?
A: Npc will try to avoid, but everyone can make mistakes, so it's highly possible, that some npcs will stuck in anomalies, and die
Q: Will NPCs avoid hitting dynamic objects?
A: All dynamic spawned objects are visible for AI, but why should they e.g. go around a wooden box? They will simply toss it away, like you would do. The dynamic objects are not heavy, so they wont block AI movement (except some doors
Q: Will you add back some cutout animations to stalkers?
A: Yep, but only those which suitable for gameplay, and looks acceptable. We made TONS of new animations too
Q: Will you add back the old rounded cursor?
A: Yes. But it can be turned off in console, if someone would prefer the default cross or dot.
Q: Sidorovich remains in the game?
A: Of course, yes. He is part of the story.
Q: What kind of textures will be used in Lost Alpha?
A: We will use only the necessary textures for the levels, which is currently near 1 GB. We also use weapon textures and some npc-monster textures from the betas, but thats all. Player will be able to use his favorite texture packs, We won't force anyone to use our favorite. (also with this step, we can spare a lot of unneeded GB)
Q: What about weather?
A: We will use sky textures from old builds and unused from vanilla game. We made a new weather system, if the player uses r2 render, the game will automatically load the atmosfear dynamic weather, which also includes the old skyboxes from stalker. If the player plays on r1 render, then the old classic beta-style weather will load. Of course he can override, and change weather presets in console.
Q: Which weapon textures you use?
A: We use textures from old builds and our ones. We don't plan to include weapon texture mods. Players can do that
Q: What about Russian version of LA?
A: When all the dialogs, stories are ready, we will look for helping hands to translate LA to russian. Currently it seems, we won't be able to translate LA into Russian till the release. In worst case, a quality translation will be released in later patches.
Q: What about graphics?
A: Static render was improved & enhanced, but nothing serious, it looks perfect already. The r2 render was also changed, but we wouldn't want to spoil it
Q: Will you use Dead City from 1935 build?
A: Nope. We use our own which we started in April 2008 and finished in September 2009. We will include some extras about development stages, and some easter eggs.
Q: Will you make any new maps, which wasn't in Stalker?
A: There will be some new areas, which we made either from scratch, or with help of GSC.
Q: Radar map contains forested areas and the garbage hills too?
A: Both.
Q: Which Yantar map will you use?
A: From 1935 build with lots of changes. First of all, fixed geometry, added water, added new vegetation, added enterable bunkers and a lot more
Q: What about Darkscape?
A: One of our best own made maps. It's huge, maybe too big, but engine can take it easily. We already spoiled the map
Q: The power plant is now one big location, or you split it?
A: One big location with lots of changes. We are sure, players will like it.
Q: Will we be able to join factions?
A: Can't say anything about these. We won't spoil the storyline
Q: Will you add cars?
A: Yep. You will need to buy them at traders. Forget about the randomly spawned working vehicles in game. It's rather unrealistic. If there would be a working car, bandits have already taken it
Q: Will you make trunk & gasoline in cars?
A: Yes. We made it long ago during the works on Priboi Story.
Q: Where will you add the faction bases?
A: We can't reveal such secrets
Q: Will you return weapon shaking, like in Clear Sky?
A: Yes, it's already in game. You can see it in action in our "Happy New Year 2012" video.
Q: What about ambient sounds?
A: We use a lot of cut or unused sounds from final game or old builds. They will make some oldschool atmosphere in stalker's world.
Q: What about the main menu. You made new?
A: As in 2005 builds with minor changes, but you can see it in our latest Deadcity video on youtube or moddb.
Q: Can I suggest some mod to be added to Lost Alpha?
A: You can... but we said many times: we won't
Some screenshots:
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