COP - Military Actions
The commander of Operation Fairway's actions don't make sense inside Pripyat. When holed up with around fifteen Elite Spetsnaz troops inside a city full of hostile (insane) Monolith troops, mutants and zombies, sending out a mere three troops for zone recon is suicide. After the Major confirms they've been killed he sends a further one recon troop out (!) whom gets possessed by a controller, three more demolition troops (who also get killed) and the lieutenant (whom the Major saves from inside a refrigerator).- It's more than that - why, out of all the possible areas that you could have gathered survivors at for an extraction, would you pick Pripyat, which is guaranteed to be filled with extremely hostile and well-armed Monolith troops? On top of that, how did they even get there from Zaton or Yanov? Through that anomaly- and poison gas-filled tunnel?
- Strelok explains that Guide met the military survivors and led them to Pripyat. It does make sense that he would be one of the first to find a path there. For the first part, I'm not sure, but I think that Colonel Kovalsky says that after the helicopters crashed, they attempted to reach the Chernobyl NPP on foot but got pinned down in Pripyat. Still a poor strategic decision, since there's no way they would survive attacking the NPP with only a handful of troops and no backup or aerial support.
- The simple explanation is that he might be completely out of his water (who wouldn't be?) and makes some decisions to show that he has the situation under control to prevent mutiny (whether real or imagined) while having a chance to accomplish something. Please note that he does not understand anything about mutants, psychic powers or anomalies. He might be an experienced officer but a very poor stalker.
Marked by the Zone Achievement
When Major Degtyarev takes 3 or more anabiotics during consecutive emissions in Call of Pripyat, it has the side effect of silencing "the voices inside his head", and the ability to shrug off further emissions unaided. From a canon story perspective, wouldn't OD'ing on a untested, unknown substance be grounds for immediate discharge within the USS, especially when emissions are easy enough to avoid by hiding indoors, and anabiotics are not essential to the mission at hand due to the abundance of cover ?- Well, it's not like the other soldiers HAVE to figure out by themselves that Degtyarev took the Anabiotics at any point, especially since they'd be more concerned about the emission and finding cover for themselves rather than paying attention to just what the hell Degtyarev over there is trying to swallow, and even if they did find out, I doubt they'd be concerned with it seeing as how they have more important matters on their hands.
- Also note that the local military don't particularly care about their own grunts getting piss-drunk or high.
- It's not exactly OD'ing, he just doesn't have a constant stream of thoughts any more because his nervous system has been permanently damaged, it's just a side-effect. You don't have to overdose to get the side-effects of cocaine, you just have to take enough. Time between doses doesn't matter.
- Also, the chemical used is tetrodoxine, a chemical of which the effects are well-documented to say the least. It's extremely dangerous to ingest it when not properly dosed.
- The wiki says the "voices inside his head" being silenced refers to certain background audio in the zone that sounds like whispering. This makes it more ambiguous about what the anabiotics are doing to Degtyarev's mind.
- Original Russian version states 'Now you feel a strange silence inside your head. It seems that you no longer hear a steady stream of thoughs', suggesting that anabiotic (and emissions) might be influencing seemingly crucial but still poorly-understood corollary discharge mechanism. Given that relevant research has been largely conducted only few years after the game was released (and is still very obscure due to its complexity), this makes you wonder whether the developers were just lucky or consulted someone familiar with cutting-edge neurobiology.
- Degtyarev is a special agent sent on an undercover mission to an extremely dangerous area. Let's say that his superiors just give him free reign over his methods. Also, they are perfectly aware that the area is not only dangerous but also largely unknown to science (that's why ecologists are sent to area), making experimental measures perfectly understandable.
What the hell's an RU?
The only thing I could think of is Russian rubles, which is RUB and the game takes place in the Ukraine.- One should keep in mind that Russia is the most stable and influential power in the region. That might be the only reason for that. The CIS version of the game is voiced mostly in Russian with some rare Surzhik (Russo-Ukrainian pidgin), implying that most Stalkers are actually Russian/Eastern Ukrainian, who would be on board with using Russian currency.
- "Resource Units?"
- The game takes place in the Zone of Alienation, which encompasses parts of the Ukraine and Belarus. The currency of Belarus is the ruble as well, so at least it's plausible the people inside the Zone would use them. As to why they use RU instead of RUB, no idea. Possibly something to do with the Cyrillic abbreviation ?
- I would hope I'm not getting ~4000 Belarus rubles (which is BYR) for an artifact...
- Just for laughs, as of 1/10/12, 4000 Belarus rubles is about 47 cents American.
- As of 6/23/2015, it is worth 26 cents in American.
- As of 2/07/2018, 4000 Belarus rubles (denominated, which is BYN) is about 2000 bucks in American.
- Jossed. If you look closer to the money icons, you may notice than these are... Soviet rubles. The games mention Safety Service of Ukraine, so Soviet Union dissolved in the game universe as well. So probably, Zone population uses Soviet money as their post-apocalyptic-style inside currency, similarly to bottle caps in Fallout.
- The abbreviation 'RU' (also present in original Russian version, complete with Latin alphabet notation) most likely refers to local usage of impromptu currency that is used only in the Zone, as the Soviet Ruble (SUR) is essetially non-existent as there is no such country as Soviet Union anymore.
Sidorovich eats a fried chicken drumstick in the intro of Shadow of Chernobyl
Where the hell does Sidorovich gets his chicken? KFC? Some generic fast food parlor outside the Zone, perhaps? Whatever his budget is, he must be having it so good.- Well, he is a smuggler, and gets things both in and out...
- He also seems to be one of the wealthier men in the Zone for this exact reason. If a Stalker gets an artifact, they usually either keep it for their own use or sell it to another Stalker or a trader. None of the other traders really mention selling goods from the Zone to the outside world, so Sidorovich more or less has a corner on the market.
- Let the man eat his chicken in peace, it's just a piece of fried chicken, virtually anyone can buy a chicken from outside the the zone and then cook it.
- Of course, this does not need to be a chicken...
SOC - Nobody tells you who you are
You run into a number of people with whom you've had past dealings - Guide, the scientists at Yantar - but nobody bothers to tell you "Hey, you're Strelok." I mean, Guide was part of your own Stalker faction, you think he'd recognize you! Am I the only one that finds this weird?- I suppose they just sort of assume you know who you are. Still, it doesn't explain why none of them just go "Hi Strelok. Long time no see."
- Guide is one of the "Touched by the Zone",not unlike Hermit, he might be just doing (or NOT doing) what the Zone wants so as not to loose his powers.
- Guide might not know Strelok personally, as he says he only heard of him. And during Strelok's first arrival at Yantar, he might have been dealing with other scientists that those in So C - Prof. Sakharov might have his younger colleagues (now dead) contact with stalkers. Kruglov was likely a new arrival or was in the field gathering data, what seems to be his primary task. When you listen to conversations, it seems that many experienced stalkers heard about Strelok's group, but they never met its members.
Tamed pseudodogs
How exactly did Doctor and Noah tame a Pseudodog in both Shadow of Chernobyl and Call of Pripyat?- It's possible both of them found the Pseudodogs as cubs, and raised them as pets. After all, the pseudodog AI exhibits the same pack behavior as a common dog. It's also possible for Noah to have some weird artifact that pacifies them, or for his mind to be so far off that his will is imposed telepathically over the pseudodog's.
