The new engine and modding.

[Roscuro]

So, anybody has thoughts about Unreal Engine 5?

I mean, it does help the devs a ton with the development since instead of having to make a new engine or upgrade X-ray, they can just focus on world building, coding, asset creation, while part of the optimization, the most if not all of the physics and lighting is dealt with by Unreal. So, those are the bigger pros, and I'm pretty sure that the standalone game will be a great experience on it's own, specially if GSC just improves on the formula they already introduced in the previous 3 games, an incredibly atmospheric and fun shooter game.

My only concern is that, as a very novice modder and a gamer with nearly 22 years of experience on my belt, I know that Unreal has always been a bit mod unfriendly. It also depends on how the devs make the game, which files get encrypted, embedded into others, what gets hard coded and what doesn't. I hope they are putting some thought on having at least partial mod support or the game's file accessibility and structure permits use to do what we did for the past 15 years since the first S.T.A.L.K.E.R. released, our dear slavjank is still relevant after so long for that exact reason.

[PsyWarVeteran]

I think it will be less modding friendly than even the good old X-Ray.

[Iamlegend]

On last news about this a long time ago, they try (which means it's not to take as a promess) to make an user-friendly mod support.

[marie pavie]

If they (modders) are too busy coding to say 'Wouldn't it be cool if...'. That would be a good thing.

[Armus]

We will see. These days “modding” usually means weapon skins and other such mostly useless things. In another game where I asked for (full) modding support I was attacked by normies who called me a criminal, a cheater, an incel and a “right winger”. xD

[Iamlegend]

Haha sorry for you Armus, people are easily on edge these times, I still believe in brighter days.

[Dr.Sunshine]

Originally posted by ac:

Modding won't happen no matter what people or the devs say.

It. Won't. Be. Happening.

and who are you to decide this?

[BlueSpark]

As long as we'll at least be able to tweak numerical config values like weapon damage and loot quantity, I'll be fairly happy. But of course, I hope that modders will have a lot more freedom to implement all kinds of ambitious ideas. Not sure how realistic that is, however.

[Redrick]

dont worry mod support is confirmed, has been for a while

[piet11111]

Originally posted by BlueSpark:

As long as we'll at least be able to tweak numerical config values like weapon damage and loot quantity, I'll be fairly happy. But of course, I hope that modders will have a lot more freedom to implement all kinds of ambitious ideas. No idea how realistic that is, however.

I just want to get rid of weight limits i tend to become a massive hoarder in games.

[CleoMc]

Found some website dedicated to Stalker 2 mods -https://www.stalker2mod.com/ , don't know much about it, but looks like they planning to offer some mods.

[BTGbullseye]

Even if they were to try and put in extensive anti-modding protections, there would still be mods. Thinking there wouldn't be is delusional.

[KoweK]

Don't expect mods more complex mods than texture/model swap

[Bandy]

Not sure why so many thought S2 would not be mod friendly, but some asking about whether something like Anomaly is possible (GAMMA is just a mod list for Anomaly with a nice installer...) don't even know those modders had access to the original STALKER X-ray engine source code, that's why they can do what they do.

So no, there will not be total conversions like Anomaly, but yes, devs will support mods...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oWmDx7XOp30&t=6s

[Vasim]

Originally posted by Roscuro:

So, anybody has thoughts about Unreal Engine 5?

I mean, it does help the devs a ton with the development since instead of having to make a new engine or upgrade X-ray, they can just focus on world building, coding, asset creation, while part of the optimization, the most if not all of the physics and lighting is dealt with by Unreal. So, those are the bigger pros, and I'm pretty sure that the standalone game will be a great experience on it's own, specially if GSC just improves on the formula they already introduced in the previous 3 games, an incredibly atmospheric and fun shooter game.

My only concern is that, as a very novice modder and a gamer with nearly 22 years of experience on my belt, I know that Unreal has always been a bit mod unfriendly. It also depends on how the devs make the game, which files get encrypted, embedded into others, what gets hard coded and what doesn't. I hope they are putting some thought on having at least partial mod support or the game's file accessibility and structure permits use to do what we did for the past 15 years since the first S.T.A.L.K.E.R. released, our dear slavjank is still relevant after so long for that exact reason.

Any engine is Anti Modder unless the developer bothers to make the game Moddable, the duty doesn't fall on the engine itself, it falls on the developer, unless Xray had been so thoroughly leaked you wouldn't see much total conversion mods for it, that because the only official supported mods for Xray back then (before CoP) were multiplayer maps.
TLDR, it being on Unreal Engine doesn't mean you won't be able to mod it, especially because Unreal Engine will run every single PAK file that it is provided, meaning that for the SDK all you need is tools to customize and link the new PAK files directly to the old ones. I think the reason people are scared for modding for Stalker 2 is because most games especially modern ones just don't care about incorporating mods, it's about the reputation surronding the games made on the engine rather than the engine itself, because you can mod ANY game on ANY engine as long as the developer allows you to. It won't be like the old ones, you're not going to get the source code, so you want be able to make standalones and share them around, but you will be able to make ♥♥♥♥ like anomaly yes, people forget that freeplay games existed without being standalone, Xiannis Freeplay Mod.

[Bandy]

Originally posted by CleoMc:

Found some website dedicated to Stalker 2 mods https://www.stalker2mod.com/ , don't know much about it, but looks like they planning to offer some mods.

Looks like they are just trying to 'stake territory' well ahead of time.

I hope modders just keep using Moddb and/or Nexus tho yes, Nexus has some issues and many modders have removed their efforts from there...