New Game Start - A free play mode attempt  

Start a new game choosing location, loadout, faction, rank, money and more things from your election, reaching some kind of "free play" mode. Intro and tutorial will be skipped and main mission disabled.

This is intended to play a "new game" role-playing free play combined with overhaul mods like "Modular Hard Mode" or "Desolation", accompanied by A-Life mods like "Shay's Living Zone" or "A-Life Found A Way" and all the mods you want. As the game world is in the initial stage, you may encounter some closed doors/ways and some convenience tricks are used for being playable.

Depending on your faction relationship, you can play secondary (blue flag) missions, repeatable tasks/quests offered by some NPCs and exploring The Zone and its many unrevealed secrets, mysteries and details. Main mission is disabled by default. You can enable it again optionally. Faction system in STALKER 2 is too underdone, don't have high expectations.

This is NOT intended for people that didn't play the game before, even didn't finish the main history mission. In fact, do not continue reading, could be a very very little spoilers about the factions.

1. Actual features

• Configurable start with faction, rank, logical location, characteristic loadout, money and some more optional things.
• Playable presets for all factions (some more playable than another).
• Playing as a faction is possible with faction relationship presets, with the faction relation values taken from the game initial stage.
• Intros and main mission skipped.
• Some factions without base have now a small base-location with trader and mechanic (will try to add guides and quest-givers).
• Increased the repeatable tasks/quests type limit (from 3 to 4) and reduced its waiting time (from 24 h to 8 h).

2. Future features/plans

• Fix the "most inminent problems": weather and emissions are locked.
• Try to add guides, medics and quest-givers for factions without access to them.
• Try to get working commands (for open doors or activate bases/zones). Some of then works with UETools, but not via scripting.
• Open the damn Pripyat access/passage. Since 1.1 there are a workaround for pass.
• Add the "personal orange stash" box and beds in starting bases where is not.
• Search and fix more "locked zones" or "closed doors/ways" caused by game stage (stage is the initial game start) and try to solve.
• Zalissya and Wild Island guide seems to be not activated at initial stage.
• Add random starting time and weather for locations (within a range).
• Try to disable the annoying PDA beeps when you receive the initial loadout items.
• Refine or add more loadouts, locations and the added traders and mechanics (could be unbalanced or improved, added more in an experimental way - waiting for feedback).
• Try to trigger some secondary quests, like Journalist quest.
• Try to improve start process stability.
• Test with more mods, like Desolation.
• Investigate a way to change player rank without forcing it, for a natural progression feeling on "free play". I thought
  something like number of enemies killed, secondary tasks done or important POIs discovered.
• Add more lore-background texts and so to starting presets. Could be done editing the "Skif note" and/or adding more elements. Would need "multi-language" and localization file editions, a bit annoying.
   
• Wish: Add new quests and repeatable quests for factions, according to lore.
• Wish: Try to remove the "ey, you're a stalker called Skif" things. Very hard.
• Wish: Faction relationship UI in PDA.
• Wish: Faction war system and conquest movements (like in Call of Chernobyl mod derivates) and quests about that.
• Wish: New factions from the STALKER worlds (Renegades and similar).
• Wish: Launch presets integrated on game UI.

I need help with these topics. I'm mostly a "newbie" modder, so I need help. It's a hard work with "trial-and-error". Comments and so are open.

3. How to use?

The way to choose your desired configuration is dropping the pak files you want from mod zip file in your mods folder (normally "C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 Heart of Chornobyl\Stalker2\Content\Paks\~mods").
Remember, you can interchange features with the "options" subfolder as your liking.

I think it's pretty understandable. Presets are ready-to-go (configurable) and category-files have a number: choose only one each desired one. Base file must be always present.
And then, use the optional "Opt." files you want. If you apply pak that overwrite the same files, the most finally loaded will prevail.

I made the mod for being "modular" in mind, to allow players doing the combination he wants. Also, this ensures more compatibility in possible new features, presets or so.

Obviously, updating will require a new save (which is what the mod was designed for) in most cases and features. For update, delete all the old pak files and use the new (some small changes or naming changes could be, not only overwrite, delete first).