S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: The Pripyat Paradox - An Important Map Problem ?

The position of Pripyat in S.T.A.L.K.E.R. games is an interesting yet never mentionned topic. Let's talk about what we like to call: The Pripyat Paradox.

[dirtyjack]

When even the map itself is an anomaly.

[rubenjacobo]

It could be possible that pripyat is a lot bigger in this alternate timeline and that it is split between a north and south district.

[MidanMagistrate]

I'd be completely fine if they retconned the old SoC pripyat, i want the zone to be realistic with a taste of stylization

[seven_aa]

When comparing the Sun position in different times of the day with the PDA map -> we will see that the Sun goes from left to right. Which means (according to the Sun movement) that on the PDA east is the left side of the map, west - right, north - down (!) and south is up. I am not sure for SoC, but in Clear Sky and Call of Pripyat the Sun moves this way.
As example - the mornings at Yanov station - If in the morning we go out of the station building through the big door towards the rails - we will see the sun (meaning this is east). And during the sunsets at Yanov station - the Sun is at the opposite site of the station (not the site of the rails) :
[south]
[east] sun in morning [scientists bunker] [train rails] [Yanov station] ... sun in sunsets [west]
[north]
With this in mind - that north is the down side of the map - Pripyat becomes north to the CNPP.
But also by this there is still one thing in conflict - the CNPP infrastucture on both the PDA map and in Google maps is in the same position - the water channel before entering the administrative buildings is directed left to right and then goes with a 90 degrees corner up to the map. But on the PDA left to right is east to west and on Google maps left to right is west to east.

[latewizard]

This does make you wonder if they tried to be more realistic with the locations in CoP or Pripyat was always north of CNPP, but the devs just placed it there so you didn't have to go all the way around, and the map is just "wrong". Or anomalies placed it there lol.

[thenecromorpher]

Just tried the "Road to the North" "standalone" (it checks for a COP registry on first launch, not totally standalone, you'll have to install and launch CoP before being able to even play RttN), it moves Pripyat and the COP Pripyat outskirts map next to each other, and moves both to the northwest of the CNNP.

[NubberT]

If I remember the Road To The North mod redesign the PDA world map to be more accurate

[BalrogSonOfNelgar]

They may attempt to explain that the nature of the Zone slowly shifts certain areas due to emissions and anomalies, but my theory is that they will emphasize the CNPP being the center of the Zone, and that you can't enter it from the south due to dense patches of radiation and impassible terrain due to anomalies. Everyone travels North from the Cordon and loops West through the Red Forest to Jupiter and Zaton (which in COP are North of the CNPP) due to the emission(s) in and following Shadow of Chernobyl opening new paths that were previously inaccessible. Everyone is camping out in Zaton and Jupiter exploring unknown territory, and Pripyat remains the most direct route to the CNPP, but is still dangerous to traverse.

As for how the Monolith traverse the region, it's possible they can go through areas others can't if the Zone is truly "alive" in a way (or because of the C Consciousness previously), or by using underground tunnels and railways that the player can't access. I believe there was/is a concept that there is an entire underground throughout the Zone that connects all the labs and major installations, and some of those entrances we see in the Red Forest. And, of course, they control Pripyat, which is the most direct route.

The other problem is Limansk. I don't know exactly where Limansk is supposed to be, because it's not a real town, but if they leave it in the same part of the map as it is already (the the west, assuming the power plant is no longer the northern tip of the map), they may explain that the path Clear Sky uses to get to the CNPP from the hospital is a tunnel that connects the labs and hospitals to the CNPP. There's evidence of railways in other underground locations, so it may have been used to move medical supplies to the other facilities, and to move injured staff from the labs and the power plant to the hospitals for treatment. I don't remember exactly how that section of Clear Sky goes, so I may be completely wrong on that front.

Whether or not GSC will add any new locations (besides the big radar), maybe to the east of the CNPP or further North, I think this new open world is going to have the CNPP in the center, and they'll rebuild the map around it to show the real location of Pripyat and the COP maps, and to the south will be all the old locations we remember from previous games, and there will be a barrier of some kind preventing players from entering the CNPP from the South, and they'd have to follow the routes all the other stalkers took in the "rush for the North" and go through Pripyat again.

I know this video is old, but I've been binging this guy's videos, and it has me intrigued

[xfeerman]

Omfg, man. You just informed me of the new Stalker game coming in 2021. Thank you very much.

[bonetower]

An in lore reason would be the zone is shifting dimensions slightly, so the map seems to change but no one on the inside notices. Pulling parts of alternative Pripyats, possibly even dragging people and monstrosities from those worlds over too.

[battlesheep]

Wouldnt it be neat if they reconned it to having the anomalous nature of the zone making the zone non-euclidean and subject to change, actually figuring out how to make locations shift in position over time? It would probably be pretty difficult to stitch it together using procedurally generated terrain in a way that doesn't look like ass, though

[farcryrestorationproject]

I wonder what would happen if they mixed zaton with the great swamps

[johnsaints]

Wouldn't be surprised if they changed Pripyat for Stalker 2, but following CoP's direction of more fidelity with irl.
In the trailer the huge radio tower from Limansk is now in the middle of a forest of sorts, like its real life counterpart, seems to indicate this direction.

[MeatSnax]

I'm not sure about the books, but the Zone in the Tarkovsky film is specifically stated to rearrange itself while you're not looking. It'd be cool if they used that to excuse moving real life areas around to facilitate gameplay.

[CRegaladoDA]

An interesting idea for stalker 2 would be to resize and change the position of the areas in the map, just so slightly to reinforce the idea that the zone changes it's environment, it would also be cool if they add a compass and if you north on the pda, the compass would show that you are going another direction but north, and to make things funkier make the sun hide and rise positions random.

I know it's a weird and maybe a hated idea but for me it would add more interest on what the zone is and could hopefully add more interest to newer players.

[YuriYoshiosan]

One other theory, not about a theory of lore, but a theory of physics...

Limansk, when walking in a straight line above the map, clipping through it with a teleport mod, is roughly around 700/800m in length. Measuring the distance between the edge of Pripyat and Reactor 4 with Limansk's size on the map, it's approximately around only 1.5km away from Pripyat, which in that one night when the evacuation happened, the citizens of Pripyat is also caught by the radiation assuming they're 1km south of the power plant. Not like massive rads, but like around a CT Scan worth of rads.

[barbaronians]

Very important subject, good thing you made a video on this

[ThePulmentinum]

The zone is (roughly) circular and I always thought the game explored a slice of it and it was placed top down on the map for clarity. I didn't care much about an actual compass being there. We start near the Belarusian border, possibly in Belarus, and make our way to Pripyat (or Limansk) and then Chernobyl NPP.

[ТониРестлер]

almost exactly my thoughts.
Why did degtyarev come from the north of the backwater, there is the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant there.
How could the backwater be located between Pripyat and the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant? After all, in the shadow of Chernobyl there was not so much space on the map.
but the "jupiter" factory is located correctly, since southwest of Pripyat there is a red forest and gunslinger escape from scar to the north through tunnels, which led him to the jupiter factory which is west from Pripyat (we can understand that gunslinger came from the chase exactly there thanks to the notes found)
but here’s the catch, from the jupiter factory he went to the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, and had to go through the backwater, but near the backwater the Chernobyl nuclear power plant is not visible at all .
although they should be very close.
degtyarev is a monster from the center of the zone or an anomaly, and the whole game is an illusion of zombified stalkers who went to the center of the zone through the brain scorcer

[NotNeodream]

you can see CNPP in the background in Jupiter when you look at the north.