xr3la

Hello Stalkers!
In this "short" progress report I want to share some news on development of my two current projects.

#1: Dead Air Artefacts R3done v1.0 is ready!



Well, almost. My new artefact overhaul, that will take place of my previous De Facto Artefacto, is 99% complete. The only things left for me to do with it are to prepare it for release - as of now I only have a version compatible with my WIP version of DAOO, but making a standalone version is just a matter of copy-pasting and deleting a few lines of text in .ltx files.

I am just starting a new playthrough of Dead Air to test if everything works as intended, but so far it seems that everything is A-okay. I am also thinking about some more small additions, but now DAOO takes priority, so these small features may be pushed back to some post-launch update. Worry not, though - in its current state DAAR can easily be called a complete project, and any other additions will just be small extensions of its already quite wide array of features.

What will this addon be all about? Well, as it is based on my DFA, it will do all the same things, and much more. Artefact degradation and effect randomization scripts are greatly tweaked, all artefacts have new descriptions and properties, economy and respawn times are changed, ALL 134 spawn points are tweaked to have their own unique sets of artefacts and spawn coeffs - detectors and containers weren't left untouched either. And there also are... a few (14) new artefacts, all of which have their models and textures imported from original S.T.A.L.K.E.R. games, so no need to be afraid about immersion breaking looks.
Basically, think DAOO, but for artefacts instead of suits.

DAAR will launch most probably in a few days after Dead Air 1.0's release. As De Facto Artefacto will then be an objectively inferior addon to this new one, it will be removed and no longer available. New game will not be required to play DAAR, but I would strongly recommend starting a new save to get the full experience. This is partially why I want to release it soon after DA 1.0's launch, as new game will probably be required for playing it anyway. Two birds with one stone!


#2: DAOO Progress
With DAAR requiring only some final polish, I can now focus on the development of DAOO. So far I have only tested some trader-related features that I want to implement with the next version of the Outfit Overhaul. For now it seems to be working fine, but a lot of testing needs to be done.

All that follows can be considered a spoiler, so don't look if that's not what you are here for.
Alright - updated trading system will be based on much higher number of supply tiers than what we have in original Dead Air. Unlocking new outfits will now require both documents and reputation in almost all cases. For example:
Say you want to get Mercenary SEVA Bodysuit. To unlock it in DAOO v1.1EXT, you need to bring Dushman one set of documents. In the next version, you will need a large amount of reputation on top of that. If you bring him the documents, but don't have enough reputation ("goodwill"), he will not offer you the suit, but weapons of this supply tier will still be available. I don't want to get too in-depth here, as only testing will show if it is even possible to create a system like this, and if so - if it will be stable enough to not corrupt your save file by accident. That being said - all trade-related features that I write about here are subject to change, so keep that in mind.
Also, this system will require a rework of all existing supply tiers. To keep it enjoyable and close to the original is one thing, but the amount of work that it would require to create patches for other trade-related addons would be too great to be worth it in my opinion. Instead, new version of DAOO will contain my custom version of a trader overhaul, tailored specifically for DAOO.

Now, about new suits:
Of course, new sets will come with the update. For what factions? Depends on when Dead Air 1.0 will be released, as I want new DAOO version to launch shortly after. Monolith suits are the main focus of the next version, but - if I get enough time - Freedom and Bandits will come alongside them.

I have most suits planned already, but nothing concrete like stats or upgrade trees - just notes and ideas. In a few days I will look through all MISERY and Dead Air meshes and textures (as well as some packs sent to me by Soda_Machine) and scout for assets that I could use for the upcoming suit sets. Why in a few days? Well, because I need to borrow my friend's laptop, as my AXR Toolset broke for some reason and nothing seems to help. Ironically, the only broken component is the OGF Viewer...

I have some other ideas too, but it is still too soon to announce them. The most realistic feature as of now is the updated trade system, but like I said, even it is still a subject to change.

So, to sum all of this up - DAOO progress is slow for now, but it is there. Next version of DAOO will arrive sooner rather than later, but only when it is actually ready for release - if it turns out that base for the next update is not ready for release when Dead Air 1.0 arrives, the release will be pushed back to deliver a fully-functional update.

Well, that took me much longer to write down than I expected... Guess 5 AM is not among my most productive hours xD Anyway, thank you for reading, have a nice day and see you soon Stalker!