Think of it in a manner similar to Fallout (in the big picture sense). 'The Zone' is the area you play within, which contains powerful anomalous artifacts, but there are also mutated humans and wildlife who seek to kill people. From a lore standpoint, while some of the artifacts are insanely powerful, they also have extreme drawbacks. This is part of what gave rise to the various factions vying for control/power inside the zone
Each faction has different aims within the zone; for instance, Duty (red above) seeks to impose order via militaristic force and seek to keep the Zone and its anomalies contained by killing anything mutant or those who oppose them, Freedom (yellow/orange) believe in freedom of access to the Zone and it's eccentricities, Ecologists are government scientists, Monolith serve the 'consciousness' created within the zone, etc
And of course you have free stalkers, bandits, and so on
Yeah the problem is that while Fallout is a whole world, The Zone is what? 50 km in radius at best? That makes it hard to believe in non-countries factions and shit trying to seize or whatever a region.
well the Ukrainan military is by far the largest force, and there are also a lot of mercenaries hired by western interests fight there as well. And mostly everyone still has to resist being killed by mutants and anomalies while in the zone, which makes long term control difficult.
Yeah, and the lore behind how the Zone exists and what it can do gets real fucking wild if you dig deeply enough. There's stuff about the Monolith's obelisk-like deity possibly being, like, a satellite thing sent by aliens that crashed out of orbit a thousand years ago, to the Zone being a conscious entity that is adapting to intruders and growing stronger for it.
Most of the memes of this series are, like, deep-fried pictures of Ukrainian military dudes saying "it's gonna get way worse" and CHEEKI BREEKI IV DAMKE, but the actual lore of STALKER is weird as shit.
the Monolith’s obelisk-like deity possibly being, like, a satellite thing sent by aliens that crashed out of orbit a thousand years ago
the real interesting thing about that is that it's basically a leftover from the real early stages of development (before even the Chernobyl setting had been settled on), when it actually was just a 2001: A Space Odyssey monolith, complete with the whole idea that it causes beings arounds it to "evolve" (which was how the mutants were explained away). They changed it later on, but still kept that aspect of the lore as speculation by in-game characters
There's only a few thousand people in the entire Zone at any given time. It's an incredibly deadly and hostile environment. The Ukrainian government's authority extends exactly as far as the range of a conscript's rifle and no further. People who aren't familiar with the Zone's dangers, with outdoor survival, with combat, and with stealth will die very quickly. As a result the factions can operate with relative impunity since they can simply go to places where the Ukrainian military can't easily follow them. Also, it's Ukraine from 2007-2009. If you need to get through a military checkpoint you call the guy you know in the army and show up with some cash and some vodka.
In the US the Zone would be locked down tighter than the border, with layers of defenses, drones, constant patrols, cops, and god knows what else. But Ukraine is poor and very corrupt so the borders of the Zone are very porous and the only effective means the government has to act within the Zone are a very limited number of special forces soldiers who have been able to learn enough to survive there.
That would be a good job. No, if the Zone happened in murica, every single evangelist death cult would claim getting infected with the mutagens is good, written in the Bible, a human right, the only way for people to get eternal salvation, and the only way to free murika from anarchotransmuslamism
Instead of Duty and Freedom we'd have positivity culture wellness hippies trying to put Kolobok up their asses to experience a higher vibrational frequency while Evangelicals decide the Wish Granter is god and start sacrificing children to fulfil increasingly violent yet inane prayers.
Think of it in a manner similar to Fallout (in the big picture sense). 'The Zone' is the area you play within, which contains powerful anomalous artifacts, but there are also mutated humans and wildlife who seek to kill people. From a lore standpoint, while some of the artifacts are insanely powerful, they also have extreme drawbacks. This is part of what gave rise to the various factions vying for control/power inside the zone
Each faction has different aims within the zone; for instance, Duty (red above) seeks to impose order via militaristic force and seek to keep the Zone and its anomalies contained by killing anything mutant or those who oppose them, Freedom (yellow/orange) believe in freedom of access to the Zone and it's eccentricities, Ecologists are government scientists, Monolith serve the 'consciousness' created within the zone, etc
And of course you have free stalkers, bandits, and so on
Yeah the problem is that while Fallout is a whole world, The Zone is what? 50 km in radius at best? That makes it hard to believe in non-countries factions and shit trying to seize or whatever a region.
I guess they're more like social groups
Just some weird reading clubs
well the Ukrainan military is by far the largest force, and there are also a lot of mercenaries hired by western interests fight there as well. And mostly everyone still has to resist being killed by mutants and anomalies while in the zone, which makes long term control difficult.
And aren’t some characters theorizing that the zone is growing?
Yeah, and the lore behind how the Zone exists and what it can do gets real fucking wild if you dig deeply enough. There's stuff about the Monolith's obelisk-like deity possibly being, like, a satellite thing sent by aliens that crashed out of orbit a thousand years ago, to the Zone being a conscious entity that is adapting to intruders and growing stronger for it.
Most of the memes of this series are, like, deep-fried pictures of Ukrainian military dudes saying "it's gonna get way worse" and CHEEKI BREEKI IV DAMKE, but the actual lore of STALKER is weird as shit.
the real interesting thing about that is that it's basically a leftover from the real early stages of development (before even the Chernobyl setting had been settled on), when it actually was just a 2001: A Space Odyssey monolith, complete with the whole idea that it causes beings arounds it to "evolve" (which was how the mutants were explained away). They changed it later on, but still kept that aspect of the lore as speculation by in-game characters
There's only a few thousand people in the entire Zone at any given time. It's an incredibly deadly and hostile environment. The Ukrainian government's authority extends exactly as far as the range of a conscript's rifle and no further. People who aren't familiar with the Zone's dangers, with outdoor survival, with combat, and with stealth will die very quickly. As a result the factions can operate with relative impunity since they can simply go to places where the Ukrainian military can't easily follow them. Also, it's Ukraine from 2007-2009. If you need to get through a military checkpoint you call the guy you know in the army and show up with some cash and some vodka.
In the US the Zone would be locked down tighter than the border, with layers of defenses, drones, constant patrols, cops, and god knows what else. But Ukraine is poor and very corrupt so the borders of the Zone are very porous and the only effective means the government has to act within the Zone are a very limited number of special forces soldiers who have been able to learn enough to survive there.
:doubt:
deleted by creator
Oh god no, that's not what I meant. I meant they'd lock it down tight and shoot anyone who came in or out.
That would be a good job. No, if the Zone happened in murica, every single evangelist death cult would claim getting infected with the mutagens is good, written in the Bible, a human right, the only way for people to get eternal salvation, and the only way to free murika from anarchotransmuslamism
Instead of Duty and Freedom we'd have positivity culture wellness hippies trying to put Kolobok up their asses to experience a higher vibrational frequency while Evangelicals decide the Wish Granter is god and start sacrificing children to fulfil increasingly violent yet inane prayers.