S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl

[baba is you]

Is there a mod that makes a-life work?

 

[kites]

You can't base a theory of how it could affect game performance on mods that are fucking with broken/incomplete code compared to what it actually is or could be. I just don't believe it exists in the state people are picturing build-wise. Their examples given in pre-release interviews were all spawn-based.

I don't see how a riff constructed from the old approach couldn't work in this game; an off-line text-based "journal" system running in the background calculating dice rolls of a few hundred stalkers roaming the wider zone once in awhile and summoned into your current world-space when you enter the same area. It doesn't even have to be as complex as what was initially envisioned of them learning and growing etc. Just give them a basic formula of goals to achieve (travel to this hub, plunder this anomaly, attack this camp, go to this landmark etc). The map is already split into zones and it often makes you traverse through specific chokepoints to cross into another; if it's so taxing only work out the NPCs in zones that are touching the one you are currently in at the time. Or at the very least when you are occupying an area other stalkers should be spawned-in and exist in that space or your radius. Not just random summons 100 yards away that are transient.

 

[Inec0rn]

a-life mods

 

[whydoibother]

Is it that hard to do?

At this point you are just asking for a story you dislike to be changed to a story you like, based on your own tastes. Which is to say, you aren't talking about what we were talking about.
I'd rather the donkey in Shrek was a dog instead, but I don't call Shrek NATO propaganda.

 

[Odoryuk]

Is there anything about the engine Unreal 5 that precludes such a thing as A-Life?

This is not how engines work

 

[baba is you]

LOL. I managed to defend and protect a certain area, but as soon as I left, it fell and the NPCs were slaughtered.

Yes, it's clearly a worse script than CS.

 

[Drakortha]

a-life mods

This is precisely why games are in the state they are in at release and require mods. By installing mods you are giving developers the green light to pull this kind of shit. If everyone intead refunded games and held developers fully responsible for their shitty releases, then these kinds of mods wouldn't have to exist in the first place.

If you are a PC player who's playing STALKER 2 with mods right now I have only 3 words for you; FUCK YOU, ASSHOLE.

 

[baba is you]

The more I finish the game, the more it feels like a scam.

Area protection event is something that gamers who have played the trilogy will know what this means. Yes, A-life should be considered to have been removed even from 1.0

 

[ArchAngel]

LOL. I managed to defend and protect a certain area, but as soon as I left, it fell and the NPCs were slaughtered.

Yes, it's clearly a worse script than CS.

I read that this part of the game is broken and untested. That gamers should take the very slow approach to Stalker 2. Also once you get into Clear Sky there is no going back so be warned.

 

[baba is you]

LOL. I managed to defend and protect a certain area, but as soon as I left, it fell and the NPCs were slaughtered.

Yes, it's clearly a worse script than CS.

I read that this part of the game is broken and untested. That gamers should take the very slow approach to Stalker 2. Also once you get into Clear Sky there is no going back so be warned.

Well, this seems to be a sign that A-life won't be coming back even if it's a bugfix.

CS's faction war is definitely based on the trigger (quest completion), but it wasn't spawned everywhere.

 

[kites]

I read that this part of the game is broken and untested

It's weird because it happened right after a broken main quest for me (had to noclip), and you run through that defense area to continue the MQ. All the enemies were stuck in a building but the firefight SFX was playing. Not enough QA or something. With the balancing/economy/bugs it's like they never played their game through before going "gold".

 

[EvilWolf]

Not too many UE5 open-world games of the same ambition to compare it with.

I will say, giving them some modicum of slack, it is harder to do NPC persistence ect. when the world is not segmented. I'd imagine we really haven't come that far from the technical hurdles of Skyrim and it's flawed Open Cities mod.

Which would be excusable, if they hadn't advertised the game as something it's not. GSC really did kind of shot themselves in the foot making A-Life 2.0 one of it's biggest selling points (if not the actual biggest), because now it's going to always be the main point of scrutiny no matter what they do.

Can't they basically do what they did in the last game and have "offline" A-Life (logical representations of NPCs) in the far distance and only turn it "online" when you get within render distance (which granted in this game is abysmally short compared to the older games)

 

[cretin]

While we're talking about decline, does anyone know if there is actual projectiles modelled in S2 or is it all hitscan? A lot of the gameplay footage I'm seeing where even people who are ridiculously fast at peeking can't seem to avoid taking damage make me think its hitscan.

 

[baba is you]

It's close to an aimbot. It misses occasionally, but hits 95% of the time.

 

[Konjad]

 

[Dedicated_Dark]

 

[Drakortha]

Stop embedding top rated reddit posts. They are right there at the top of the front page of the subreddit. If we wanted to see that shit we'd go there. Fucking reddit mongrels.

 

[Dark Souls II]

While we're talking about decline, does anyone know if there is actual projectiles modelled in S2 or is it all hitscan?

I remember during the development they claimed it will have ballistics, like all real Stalker games. But if the hohols lied about that too, and it is in fact hitscan, I hope that none of the dumb niggers in this thread will try to keep pretending that this Stalker-themed, made for consoles, bootleg Far Cry game is a real Stalker game.

A lot of the gameplay footage I'm seeing where even people who are ridiculously fast at peeking can't seem to avoid taking damage make me think its hitscan

This alone is not condemning though, in real Stalker games what you describe is governed by a setting called "enemy dispersion", and if it's set to low, you will still get hit almost immediately after peaking through a corner, even by distant enemies. But in real Stalker games you didn't even feel the ballistics are there until you got a rifle like SVD and wanted to snipe enemies from afar, where taking ballistic trajectory into consideration was a must.

 

[Iucounu]

Is there anything about the engine Unreal 5 that precludes such a thing as A-Life?

ARK Survival Evolved (UE4) and ARK Survival Ascended (UE5) have AI somewhat similar to A-Life. Alas their default setting is to put NPCs in "stasis" beyond a certain player distance, but this stasis is allegedly possible to switch off: https://steamcommunity.com/app/2399830/discussions/0/3954784199573443652/

 

[Iucounu]

The original had the benefit of being level-based and didn't need to keep track of that many npcs. I don't know much about code but I assume that must simplify things a ton compared to an open world.

SoC and CS do track (offline) NPCs across most levels, in CS you can even monitor these NPC movements in real time on your PDA map. CoP doesn't have any migration across levels though.

 

[Drakortha]

While we're talking about decline, does anyone know if there is actual projectiles modelled in S2 or is it all hitscan?

I remember during the development they claimed it will have ballistics, like all real Stalker games. But if the hohols lied about that too, and it is in fact hitscan, I hope that none of the dumb niggers in this thread will try to keep pretending that this Stalker-themed, made for consoles, bootleg Far Cry game is a real Stalker game.

The more that gets unveiled about this piece of trash the more it becomes clear that their entire marketing strategy was to sell us the original stalker while actually selling us STALKER 2. They preyed on everyone's nostalgia. Plain and simple.

If the STALKER fanbase was any larger, we'd probably be getting one of these. And rightly so.

 

[adddeed]

Janky games like X beyond the Frontier from 1999 had AI doing its own thing while also simulating an economy. Space Rangers 2 from 2004 had AI npcs literally playing the same game you were playing and living in the game. Developres in 2024 are such talentless hacks its unbelievable. Esecpially with the technology and tools available to them nowadays compared to 20-30 years ago. Games peaked around a decade ago there is literally no reason to be playing anything newer than that. Its 95% shit coming out, maybe 5% something playable.

 

[EvilWolf]

not at all, braindead AI and heavily scripted events are one of the hallmarks of UE5. In most UE games the player can't even interactively open doors.. you hold X and watch some BS animation. Another thing missed by most gamers is just how piss modern AI is in FPS games, it really hasn't improved at all in decades and I don't think most games even reach F.E.A.R and HL2 level of AI which was smoke and mirrors but still a shit load of fun.

I love FEAR as much as the next guy, but the AI complexity is overblown by the fact they broadcast everything over radio and you say to yourself "Wow, they're working as le team!" when every other AI does pretty much the same thing except they don't actively tell you they're doing it. On top of that all of the jaw dropping moments are mostly scripted.You really shouldnt be using HL2 as a bastion of great AI either considering if you do any research about it you learn that it's held together by paper mache and duct tape.

While we're talking about decline, does anyone know if there is actual projectiles modelled in S2 or is it all hitscan? A lot of the gameplay footage I'm seeing where even people who are ridiculously fast at peeking can't seem to avoid taking damage make me think its hitscan.

It's actual projectiles. Mount a scope and try hitting something far away.

 

[Gerrard]

Another funny thing is that there is a bleeding mechanic, but the basic bandage both ends the bleed *and* gives you like 50% health back in 2 seconds. There's basically nothing to think about here when it comes to the survival elements compared to the popular mods for stalker 1.

And this is a good thing. There were no fucking """survival elements""" deeper than this in the original games. It's almost like it never was a survival game, as it has been pointed out multiple times.
Also the bandages heal around 20%, not 50.

 

[ArchAngel]

Another funny thing is that there is a bleeding mechanic, but the basic bandage both ends the bleed *and* gives you like 50% health back in 2 seconds. There's basically nothing to think about here when it comes to the survival elements compared to the popular mods for stalker 1.

And this is a good thing. There were no fucking """survival elements""" deeper than this in the original games. It's almost like it never was a survival game, as it has been pointed out multiple times.
Also the bandages heal around 20%, not 50.

Not in original but there are some in popular mod packs that most of the people still playing Stalker 1 play.