Oblivion Lost, Oblivion Lost Remake or Lost Alpha?

[General Plastro]

Hey folks, i am currently playing vanilla with the ZRP patch and the subtitles mod. Do you guys recommend i continue like this for my first playthrough or i should just go with one of the mentioned mods?

From what i gather, all of them supposedly make SoC what it was originally intended to be, but what are the differences between the mods? Can someone give me a rundown of them?

[HunterKiller]

LA is FREE :)

[PsyWarVeteran]

First of all I suggest you to finish the game without any mods except bug fixing types. To me, ZRP is okay for a first time run. Now, let's talk about mods:

Oblivion Lost : One of the oldest mods, started as a cut content restoration mod but very loosely delivered, it has added some cut features like sleeping bags and cut mutants but overall I don't see it as a faithful restoration mod. Just a mod that adds some cut features into the same game, same story. Newest and final version is pretty different than before and most of the community kind of disappointed by it.

Lost Alpha : Extremely hyped for good reason, everything looked great for Lost Alpha. It had GSC's support, a big and seemingly competent team and nearly everyone's praise but then it just got fanfiction-y and lacked any depth. It loosely followed the cut story, added extremely dumb and unneeded story archs ( Illuminati in the Zone - What The Hell? ) and one of the biggest backtracking session I have ever witnessed in a mod. Combine those with nearly non-existent A-Life (meaning once you killed everything in a map that place will never repopulate) and you got Lost Alpha. I would be lying if I haven't enjoyed playing this one, but it's far from a faithful old story restoration mod.

Oblivion Lost Remake: Now this is what Lost Alpha was supposed to be, it's currently on version 2.5 and officially Russian only ( fan-made English translations are available ) but it looks and plays great, it's faithful to the old story, remakes cut content from scratch ( like 3d item selection or showing hands when driving a car ) OLR seems to be the definitive cut content restoration mod. I'm currently waiting for a new version myself but even the state this mod is currently in it's simply amazing.

There is also another restoration mod called RMA or Old Storyline Restoration mod, but instead of remaking very first storyline elements it focuses on re-implementing quest and maps that were closer to the final version. Still a pretty good restoration mod.

[PsyWarVeteran]

Every mod I have talked about includes some type of cut or new weapon, mutants, items and old build maps, except Oblivion Lost, which includes everything stated above but new maps.

[General Plastro]

Thanks for the rundown! I just reached the Bar and wouldn't want to restart with a mod if I found out I was missing too much by not using one of these mods :P

Right now Iam trying to figure out how to become friends with both Duty and Freedom, as it seems to be the best route to keep my options open.

Also, since you guys seem experienced with the game, is there any way to befriend the Loner faction?

[PsyWarVeteran]

General Plastro の投稿を引用：

Thanks for the rundown! I just reached the Bar and wouldn't want to restart with a mod if I found out I was missing too much by not using one of these mods :P

Right now Iam trying to figure out how to become friends with both Duty and Freedom, as it seems to be the best route to keep my options open.

Also, since you guys seem experienced with the game, is there any way to befriend the Loner faction?

You can heal them with medkits when they are down, other than that I don't think there is any other way. Don't mind being friendly with any faction though, there is simply nothing to gain from it. You can became friends with both Duty and Freedom by doing some quests for them. That being said the only faction you can join is Freedom. I'm talking about vanilla game of course.

[General Plastro]

PsyWarVeteran の投稿を引用：

General Plastro の投稿を引用：

Thanks for the rundown! I just reached the Bar and wouldn't want to restart with a mod if I found out I was missing too much by not using one of these mods :P

Right now Iam trying to figure out how to become friends with both Duty and Freedom, as it seems to be the best route to keep my options open.

Also, since you guys seem experienced with the game, is there any way to befriend the Loner faction?

You can heal them with medkits when they are down, other than that I don't think there is any other way. Don't mind being friendly with any faction though, there is simply nothing to gain from it. You can became friends with both Duty and Freedom by doing some quests for them. That being said the only faction you can join is Freedom. I'm talking about vanilla game of course.

Is there any benefit from "glitching" my way into Freedom?

I know Mercenaries & Bandits become neutral... but is there any quests or unique dialogue that way?

From what i gathered, joining Freedom basically breaks the game a bit, because it will lock me out of the Ecologist's quests (they will be hostile) and scripted combat encounters with Mercs & Bandits will also break due to them being neutral.

Basically, the vanilla game never assumed Bandits & Mercs would ever go neutral, right?

[PsyWarVeteran]

General Plastro の投稿を引用：

PsyWarVeteran の投稿を引用：

You can heal them with medkits when they are down, other than that I don't think there is any other way. Don't mind being friendly with any faction though, there is simply nothing to gain from it. You can became friends with both Duty and Freedom by doing some quests for them. That being said the only faction you can join is Freedom. I'm talking about vanilla game of course.

Is there any benefit from "glitching" my way into Freedom?

I know Mercenaries & Bandits become neutral... but is there any quests or unique dialogue that way?

From what i gathered, joining Freedom basically breaks the game a bit, because it will lock me out of the Ecologist's quests (they will be hostile) and scripted combat encounters with Mercs & Bandits will also break due to them being neutral.

Basically, the vanilla game never assumed Bandits & Mercs would ever go neutral, right?

"Glitching" is the right word. You can finish the game as a member of Freedom but, as you said, it makes some of the scripted scenes play out weirdly. For example :There is a fight between Mercs and Ecologists, you are supposed to help the scientist only but due to being friendly with Freedom, Mercs just stay still and won't shoot you. Sure the game will be playable but will act out weirdly.
I say just don't bother with any of the Factions. There are no rewards other than head scratching moments like these. There are no unique dialogs or anything like that.

[them4pples]

I'd say beat the game once with bug fixes + vanilla. Then when you start modding the game, you can really appreciate how much the different mods change the game. My personal favorite SoC mod is autumn aurora, but I kinda wanna try out radiophobia.

There's also some stand alone mods you can check out. Some have already been mentioned, but there's another good one called Anomaly. It's runs on a 64 bit engine and is pretty damn smooth. The visuals look pretty different too with how everything is rendered. It's also free. Give it a shot!

[joseph.webster]

PsyWarVeteran の投稿を引用：

First of all I suggest you to finish the game without any mods except bug fixing types. To me, ZRP is okay for a first time run. Now, let's talk about mods:

Oblivion Lost : One of the oldest mods, started as a cut content restoration mod but very loosely delivered, it has added some cut features like sleeping bags and cut mutants but overall I don't see it as a faithful restoration mod. Just a mod that adds some cut features into the same game, same story. Newest and final version is pretty different than before and most of the community kind of disappointed by it.

Lost Alpha : Extremely hyped for good reason, everything looked great for Lost Alpha. It had GSC's support, a big and seemingly competent team and nearly everyone's praise but then it just got fanfiction-y and lacked any depth. It loosely followed the cut story, added extremely dumb and unneeded story archs ( Illuminati in the Zone - What The Hell? ) and one of the biggest backtracking session I have ever witnessed in a mod. Combine those with nearly non-existent A-Life (meaning once you killed everything in a map that place will never repopulate) and you got Lost Alpha. I would be lying if I haven't enjoyed playing this one, but it's far from a faithful old story restoration mod.

Oblivion Lost Remake: Now this is what Lost Alpha was supposed to be, it's currently on version 2.5 and officially Russian only ( fan-made English translations are available ) but it looks and plays great, it's faithful to the old story, remakes cut content from scratch ( like 3d item selection or showing hands when driving a car ) OLR seems to be the definitive cut content restoration mod. I'm currently waiting for a new version myself but even the state this mod is currently in it's simply amazing.

There is also another restoration mod called RMA or Old Storyline Restoration mod, but instead of remaking very first storyline elements it focuses on re-implementing quest and maps that were closer to the final version. Still a pretty good restoration mod.

Which is closer to the original vision Lost Alpha or Oblivion Lost?

[PsyWarVeteran]

Oblivion Lost is a WAY smaller mod than Lost Alpha, there are no cut maps, quests or characters restored but at least it is consistent with the lore (to some extent), in LA developers tried to combine the old story with their own made up one and it ruined the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 's lore.

I guess you can say Oblivion Lost is closer to the original vision, not because it's more faithful but because of it's not very ambitious attitude. It doesn't add jumpscares, Illuminati or hilariously goofy made up mutants, it's just, the same game with different items and characters.

[General Plastro]

PsyWarVeteran の投稿を引用：

Oblivion Lost is a WAY smaller mod than Lost Alpha, there are no cut maps, quests or characters restored but at least it is consistent with the lore (to some extent), in LA developers tried to combine the old story with their own made up one and it ruined the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 's lore.

I guess you can say Oblivion Lost is closer to the original vision, not because it's more faithful but because of it's not very ambitious attitude. It doesn't add jumpscares, Illuminati or hilariously goofy made up mutants, it's just, the same game with different items and characters.

It seems Lost Alpha would make an interesting second playthrough of this game.

Even if it goes into bad fanfic territory, at least it will be different enough to be interesting.

And how about Oblivion Lost Remake? Does it add new quests and stuff that still makes things new and fresh?

I mean, I am guessing that not all cut areas/NPCs/factions had leftover designer docs and info to make enough quests and missions, so i am assuming the remake creators had to also create original content, right?

[PsyWarVeteran]

General Plastro の投稿を引用：

PsyWarVeteran の投稿を引用：

Oblivion Lost is a WAY smaller mod than Lost Alpha, there are no cut maps, quests or characters restored but at least it is consistent with the lore (to some extent), in LA developers tried to combine the old story with their own made up one and it ruined the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 's lore.

I guess you can say Oblivion Lost is closer to the original vision, not because it's more faithful but because of it's not very ambitious attitude. It doesn't add jumpscares, Illuminati or hilariously goofy made up mutants, it's just, the same game with different items and characters.

It seems Lost Alpha would make an interesting second playthrough of this game.

Even if it goes into bad fanfic territory, at least it will be different enough to be interesting.

And how about Oblivion Lost Remake? Does it add new quests and stuff that still makes things new and fresh?

I mean, I am guessing that not all cut areas/NPCs/factions had leftover designer docs and info to make enough quests and missions, so i am assuming the remake creators had to also create original content, right?

Thanks to the GSC's decision to share various builds of the game we know a lot about the cut content, I would go so far as to call the development of S.T.A.L.K.E.R. is the most well documented one, right next to Half-Life 2.

Of course not every info or code related to the cut content surfaced, as I said OLR developers remaked quite a lot of them from scratch. There isn't anything wrong with that, it is to be expected, but you must draw the line from somewhere. OLR creators follow this rule zealously. Unlike Lost Alpha's devs.

As for the adding new stuff, of course it does add new stuff. Missions and characters are taken straight from the design documents, at least as far as I have played. Maps are from the build versions, even the cut physics and sounds are salvaged. There are stuff that is so minor that no one would care about but the devs just added them to the game anyway. I don't remember if it was added or not but did you know Pseudogiants had a jumping attack? Well, the devs implemented that and were asking the community if it would fit the game or not.

I played Lost Alpha first and last time when it was first leaked, finished it and I had a very fun time with it. It's maps were empty wastelands but nevertheless beautiful, and the game loved to make you run through those beautiful, empty maps, the backtracking was unreal. Story was insane but storing all sorts of items in your car's trunk and selling them to the Barman was fun. There were ups and downs but overall I enjoyed it.

There is now a "definitive" edition of Lost Alpha and it shows how the devs just gave up doing a restoration mod. They added completely original and goofy characters ( Boris the Shashlik King - what does this have to do with Stalker? ) added an upgrade and levelling up system and stuff like that. It's absolutely not a good restoration mod but it is fun, so of course, play Lost Alpha, but don't expect a faithful remake of the dream game.