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

Hace El Oso

Arcane
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Even relatively low budget games have decent foliage nowadays. Here's a 2022 game from a studio that used to make licensed tie-in game for a brick and mortar retailer. Mostly stable 60 FPS at 1440P on a 6700 XT (I turn the graphics a notch down to keep the fan from going too crazy).
eVatMGG.jpeg

ZHDxwMi.jpeg

But all that ‘pretty foliage’ now is usually just pictures, signboards without collision or physicality. You lose the whole worldly function and satisfaction of foliage.



EDIT: It’s the Far cry 2 vs. 5 comparison video timestamped to the vegetation section, 5:25. I can't be held responsible for the author forcing you to watch it on youtube.
 
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jebsmoker

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Insert Title Here Strap Yourselves In I helped put crap in Monomyth
friend of mine told me that the game's performance improves dramatically if you disable ray traced lighting in the ini file. the most noticeable difference is that it actually looks like the older games if you use the older lighting system

why is ray traced lighting not a thing you can turn off or on in the the options menu lmao
 

kites

samsung verizon hitachi
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Using UETools/noclip has been necessary for me a handful of times to progress the MQ ever since "Just Like the Good Old Days". I don't know why they haven't pushed out a hotfix for these simple scripting issues. Just started "Visions of Truth" and fell through the elevator floor during the ride and died; closed the game.

Started using a mod that makes the spawn radius a few times wider; it's anecdotal as I've only played a few hours with it, but it seems to be working at very little impact to performance. Occasionally it will dip down to ~50fps in more populated areas at my locked 60. I have been in an "aggro" state more though + I have only been at MTC Malachite and in the Duga region doing the "Happiness for Everyone" quest and checking a few question marks/stashes on the map; don't know how it will affect other settlements/scripted spawns. I expect anything touching this system without access to the game code will be extremely unstable and potentially game-breaking. It's a slip-shod band-aid, but it's nice to see stuff happening further in the distance - despite the NPC's not being persistent.

Also forgot to mention before: You should probably avoid the bartender "Ganja" in Rostok. Got locked into a Ukrainian "1 or 2" dialogue choice that I couldn't escape and had to alt+F4; happened to me twice hours apart.
 
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Jinn

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One of the modders on Nexus diagnosed A-life 2.0, claiming that there is no offline AI.

It's over. It seems like my thoughts that the Stalker 2 mod would end before it could even start properly have become reality.
You gotta stop dooming so hard and give it more than a week and a half.
 

kites

samsung verizon hitachi
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hyperborean trench town
Masterful use of C&C
Jokes aside it seems there’s actually some amount of C&C with the MQ so far. Compared to what I expected at least (which was none when I was observing how linear the A to B MQ maps were). Unfortunately I think my problem with it was breaking several main quests by sparing somebody or choosing the more neutral option in the hopes I could see them further down the road.

Small spoiler with the “Happiness for Everyone” quest. If you take his hand, you will have to start the boss battle over (probably for the best if you don’t immediately catch onto the boss gimmick). I thought maybe he had changed since I broke the psi-energy sources or whatever and he had gained his eyes back. Oh well. Ended up with a broken autosave that wouldn’t let me move til restart.
 

Gerrard

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Messages
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friend of mine told me that the game's performance improves dramatically if you disable ray traced lighting in the ini file. the most noticeable difference is that it actually looks like the older games if you use the older lighting system

why is ray traced lighting not a thing you can turn off or on in the the options menu lmao
Because the purpose of Lumen is not to make the game look better, it's to make it easier for devs to make the game. Never mind that the original stalker games never had hundreds of gay hidden lights that were meant to fake light bounce in the first place, like Bethesda games do.
 

Alienman

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Codex 2016 - The Age of Grimoire Make the Codex Great Again! Grab the Codex by the pussy Codex Year of the Donut Shadorwun: Hong Kong Divinity: Original Sin 2 Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag.
I miss old engines in general. The old Stalker engine still looks superior, in at least mood. And you know it will run perfectly.
 

baba is you

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No. I'm not a freaking chatbot.
After waiting, the modder who made that claim explained it in more detail. He said that The Lair System is responsible for A-life's offline AI.

The modder claimed that The Lair System was the ultimate simulation system, but it was broken due to a bug. And he said that it is unlikely to be fixed anytime soon.

However, even after seeing this claim, the doubts in my mind still do not go away.
 

Dark Souls II

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After waiting, the modder who made that claim explained it in more detail. He said that The Lair System is responsible for A-life's offline AI.

The modder claimed that The Lair System was the ultimate simulation system, but it was broken due to a bug. And he said that it is unlikely to be fixed anytime soon.

However, even after seeing this claim, the doubts in my mind still do not go away.
What's the "lair system"? Just spawning mutants/NPCs in lairs/bases, as opposed to just spawning them randomly around the PC?

Real A-Life should:

a) spawn mutants/NPCs in lairs/bases
b) have dynamic mutant behavior (looking for weak targets, increased aggressiveness at night etc.)
c) have faction-dependent NPC behavior (loners, bandits, duty, freedom, military, monolith etc. all have different goals, which is reflected in what their NPC squads do - loners will go to anomalies to look for artifacts, duty will assault bandit outposts etc.)
d) each faction has a pre-determined set of main behaviors, and out of these, the ones that are chosen for the squad being spawned are being set dynamically (for example, an NPC squad spawning in a weakened outpost will focus on defense)
e) squad behavior can change dynamically - they can abandon current goal and go help a base being attacked, when the weather gets bad they will look for a hideout etc.

Chances of the devs actually adding all of this to the game now (I don't believe for a second that it's "in the code") are exactly 0%. They will try to sell you a slightly less-broken spawner script as a working A-Life, and that's it.
 

ADL

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baba is you

Educated
Joined
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Messages
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No. I'm not a freaking chatbot.
After waiting, the modder who made that claim explained it in more detail. He said that The Lair System is responsible for A-life's offline AI.

The modder claimed that The Lair System was the ultimate simulation system, but it was broken due to a bug. And he said that it is unlikely to be fixed anytime soon.

However, even after seeing this claim, the doubts in my mind still do not go away.
What's the "lair system"? Just spawning mutants/NPCs in lairs/bases, as opposed to just spawning them randomly around the PC?

Real A-Life should:

a) spawn mutants/NPCs in lairs/bases
b) have dynamic mutant behavior (looking for weak targets, increased aggressiveness at night etc.)
c) have faction-dependent NPC behavior (loners, bandits, duty, freedom, military, monolith etc. all have different goals, which is reflected in what their NPC squads do - loners will go to anomalies to look for artifacts, duty will assault bandit outposts etc.)
d) each faction has a pre-determined set of main behaviors, and out of these, the ones that are chosen for the squad being spawned are being set dynamically (for example, an NPC squad spawning in a weakened outpost will focus on defense)
e) squad behavior can change dynamically - they can abandon current goal and go help a base being attacked, when the weather gets bad they will look for a hideout etc.

Chances of the devs actually adding all of this to the game now (I don't believe for a second that it's "in the code") are exactly 0%. They will try to sell you a slightly less-broken spawner script as a working A-Life, and that's it.
If the modder's claims are true, it seems pretty similar.

https://www.nexusmods.com/stalker2heartofchornobyl/mods/210

The modder has a detailed description on his mod page, which says

" The Lair System is supposed to influence and shape the game world with a mechanically complex system involving faction contests over territory. "

It reminds me of Clear Sky.

However, it's not exactly similar to offline AI, so I don't know how long the NPCs will be able to maintain their behavior.
 

Dark Souls II

Educated
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Bruh

A-Life Fix And Spawn Overhaul
This cfg edit restores (or at least mimics) the chaotic dynamism of the old stalker games by "unlocking" the range of the director.
It also murders your framerate, so you can enjoy the authentic 30fps 2007 Shadow Of Chernobyl gameplay experience. Note that the spawn Director is very broken in the game, therefore all cfg mods at this juncture are merely band-aids.

  • Increases spawn rates and distance of spawns. Extends online a-life range.
  • Heavily mitigates (but does not prevent) cases of enemies appearing out of thin air right behind you.
  • Significant extension of A-Life range. NPC and NPC interactions can be seen and heard from afar.
  • Enables distant gunfights.
  • Revamps Director scenarios for more variety of encounters
  • Keeps your legs warm in winter with performance impact.
  • Prevents quest npcs and towns from spawning normally at times. You have to save and reload the game to get quest npcs to spawn.

This literally just increases the spawn range. It does nothing else. But here's the cool part:

The ALifeGridVisionRadius is set to 80m in vanilla. This is not just the radius of director spawns, this is the radius where all actor models spawn, and it is also the radius where actors are interactable. This 80m radius is the "real world" bubble around the player and nothing else outside of it exists.

Holy fucking shit. And dumb niggers in this thread wonder why binoculars are not in the game. Nigger, it's because nothing happens at >80m, what do you need binoculars for?
 

ADL

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Messages
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Nantucket
Patch out. No release notes yet.
Lx9jkF7.png

nvm patch notes are out
Patch 1.0.1 is live! Here is the patchnote!
Over 650 fixes, including quest blockers, memory leaks, crashes, and minor bugs.

Attention, stalkers.
Thanks for your passion and support since the release, it is really important to us. The Patch 1.0.1 is live both on PC and Xbox. This is our first fix patch that addressed over 650 different bugs and issues. Here is the list of the major updates for the game.



AI fixes:
  • Fixed groups of NPCs getting stuck and dying near Shelter during active Emission.
  • Fixed issue when Burer could drop any mission items out of the player's hands.
  • Added missing sound effects for Burer’s 'Telekinesis' ability.
  • Fixed issues with NPCs occasionally getting stuck and not reaching the mission location. This might have caused inability to interact with NPC or progress to the next mission stage due to idle behavior of mission NPC.
  • Fixed issues with performance drops/potential out-of-memory crashes in hubs and locations crowded with NPCs during long play sessions.
  • Fixed issue when NPCs would move to A-pose or start flying after death.
  • Fixed issue when NPCs could not track whether a target in cover was covered from shots, which caused them to shoot into cover.
And other, more than 20 different issues with AI.

Optimization fixes:
  • Fixed issue with invisible NPC/Mutants appearing in FOV while the Player is scoping.
  • Fixed fire visual effects that were not rendering at certain camera angles.
Also, we fixed approximately 100 different crashes, including potential memory leaks and EXCEPTION_ACCESS_VIOLATION issues.

Audio & Sound fixes:
  • Fixed issue when combat music was still playing while combat was finished.
And 7 other minor audio & sound bugs.

Balance adjustments:
  • Weapons and armor repair cost is decreased.
  • Significantly increased cost of artifacts (more revenue from selling).
  • Money reward for most missions is increased from 2 to 3 times.
  • Rookie difficulty armor and weapons buffs.
  • Damage from mutants is moderately decreased on Rookie difficulty (more mutant health balance changes in Combat Balance section).
  • Damage to player's weapon is decreased by 23 percent on Rookie difficulty.
  • Armor durability is increased by 12.5 percent.
  • Added silencer attachment for PTM to specific stash on Lesser Zone.
  • Fixed sell prices for Exoskeletons, they are now more expensive to sell.
  • Fixed sell price of upgraded weapons.
  • Rebalanced Hercules consumable: player speed debuff removed; increased the effect parameters (now more weight could be carried by player after consuming).
Some additional minor bugfixes.

Combat Balance:
  • Reduced some mission items' weight (including weight of scanners)
  • Slightly rebalanced Bloodsucker’s damage.
  • Decreased Bloodsucker’s strike protection rank (more damage from guns).
  • Reduced Boodsucker’s HP regeneration outside the combat.
  • Controller HP is moderately reduced.
  • Burer HP is moderately reduced.
  • Boar HP is moderately reduced.
  • Flesh HP is moderately reduced.
  • Damage to Boar from headshots changed to 100% of body damage.
  • Damage to Boar from shots to the limbs is increased.
  • Damage to Flesh from shots to the limbs is increased.
  • Significantly increased weapon melee distance.
  • Slightly increased knife melee distance.
Gamepad Input:
  • Increased gamepad dead zones
Characters:
  • Fixed eyes and teeth on NPC models.
  • Some minor fixes of NPC models and animations.
Cutscenes:
  • Added missing footage to TV displays in the final cutscene.
  • Fixed issue with deer animation in the opening cutscene.
And 20 other different bugs in the cutscenes.

Game Settings & Menus:
  • Adjusted unreadable text at the bottom of the Shader Compilation screen.
  • Fixed issue with the 'Nvidia Reflex Low Latency' option not being saved on subsequent boots of the game.
And 10 more minor issues.

Interactable Objects:
  • Fixed physics issues with destructible and movable objects, including those floating in the air.
  • Fixed interaction prompt with glass doors in SIRCAA’s inner yard, which caused a walkthrough blocker.
  • Fixed missing inner doors in the X-11 laboratory elevator.
And more minor bugs.

Main and Side Missions:
Resolved numerous mission blockers and bugs encountered under specific conditions. Key fixes include:
  • Fixed missing interaction with dead Blind dogs in the Nightingale’s Hunt mission.
  • Fixed uncompletable objectives in the Seek, and You Shall Find mission.
  • Fixed multiple issues in the There and Back Again mission, including one where the artifact couldn’t be found.
  • Resolved dialog loop with Zotov during the A Needle in a Haystack mission.
  • Fixed progression blockers in the Answers Come at a Price mission, including issues with bandits after an emission and missing the Heavy Key item.
  • Corrected mission markers for NPC locations in Hot on the Trail mission.
  • Fixed door-related issues in the In Search of a Guide mission and The Side Hustle mission.
  • Fixed issue when cutscene does not start during the Just Like the Good Old Days mission.
  • Fixed issue when Lodochka is missing in Quite's Camp during the Just Like the Good Old Days mission.
  • Fixed an issue during Just Like the Good Old Days when Lodochka acts aggressively after bringing him the Emitter.
  • It is now possible to turn off electricity in the flooded area during the To the Last Drop of Blood mission.
  • Fixed multiple issues in the On the Edge mission, including idle NPCs, stuck doors, and the Monolith attack progression.
  • Fixed progression blockers in the A Minor Incident mission, including issues with Bayun's collar and locked doors.
  • Addressed performance drops and confusing objectives in the In Search of Past Glory mission.
  • Fixed issues in the Visions of Truth mission, including stuck NPCs and blocked progression after dialogs.
  • Resolved stuck cutscenes and blocked progression in the Dangerous Visitors, Gray’s Last Hunt, and The Eternal Shining missions.
  • Corrected spawn behaviors for NPCs and enemies in The Boundary and Escape from the Cage missions.
  • Tweaked missions like Down Below, Budmo!, and A Big Score to resolve stuck NPCs, misaligned markers, and missing dialog options.
And approximately 120 other issues within the main line, side missions, and encounters.

Open World Experience:
  • Fixed stretched or missing limbs on humanoid corpses.
  • Fixed missing fast travel routes, including to the Concrete Plant for Toadstool.
  • Resolved issues with loudspeakers, fast travel, and NPC interactions in various locations, such as the Scientists' Bunker, and Chemical Plant.
  • Adjusted hostile NPC behavior during the Arena missions, including bandits’ tactics and increased ammo for the Tyrant fight.
  • Corrected mission progression in the Black Sheep and The Key to Freedom missions.
And approximately 50 other issues were fixed.

Player Guidance, Gear, and Weapons:
  • Fixed a bug that allows to sell items to the trader for more money that they actually cost.
  • Fixed input blocking issues with the PDA, inventory, and attachments when interacting with artifacts.
  • Corrected flashlight behavior after saving/loading.
  • Resolved issues with grenade type selection, compass marker overlaps, and missing mission markers.
  • Fixed inconsistencies with weapon and armor upgrade effects, including pricing and upgrade reversals.
  • Improved HUD behavior and prolonged the duration of "Point of No Return" hints during Down Below mission.
  • Fixed a bug where player could sell mission items using gamepad.
And approximately 50 minor “anomalies”.

Voiceover and Facial Animations:
  • Restored missing facial animations for Sava in the Hot on the Trail mission and Mugwort in The Eternal Shining mission.
  • Fixed missing voice lines during the Let No One Leave Unsatisfied mission.
  • Corrected radio call effects so NPC voices properly reflect distance during communication.
And a couple more things are fixed.

World:
  • Fixed flickering textures in various locations, including the Sphere, Military Base and Chemical Plant.
  • Resolved movement issues, including getting stuck in certain locations during missions like Once More Unto the Breach and A Tough Awakening.
  • Corrected artifact spawn points in some areas.
  • Fixed NPC behavior during encounters.
  • Adjusted voice volume during storm weather for improved audio balance.
And approximately 50 more bugs.



The work on the game and future patches continues. We are working on fixing the A-Life bugs, which will be addressed in future patches.

Please continue to share your feedback and opinions on forums and social media. We are reading comments, and noting things that we could improve in future updates. If you encounter any more “anomalies” that are not supposed to be in the Zone — report them to our Technical Support Hub. That will help us investigate your particular case and implement fixes faster:

https://support.stalker2.com/hc/en-us/remissions/new

Thank you so much for your feedback, passion, and support during this period. Stay sharp, and see you in the Zone, stalker!
MORE WAYS TO CONNECT:
This literally just increases the spawn range. It does nothing else.
I know, but that's probably enough to make the campaign playable.
 

PanteraNera

Arcane
Joined
Nov 7, 2014
Messages
1,067
And other, more than 20 different issues with AI.
Also, we fixed approximately 100 different crashes, including potential memory leaks and EXCEPTION_ACCESS_VIOLATION issues.
And 7 other minor audio & sound bugs.
Some additional minor bugfixes.
And 20 other different bugs in the cutscenes.
And 10 more minor issues.
And more minor bugs.
And approximately 120 other issues within the main line, side missions, and encounters.
And approximately 50 other issues were fixed.
And approximately 50 minor “anomalies”.
And a couple more things are fixed.
And approximately 50 more bugs.
Why do they do not post the full patch notes?
Sounds to me like a deception.
 

ArchAngel

Arcane
Joined
Mar 16, 2015
Messages
21,871
So repair prices are less crazy and bloodsuckers are somewhat nerfed. Outside of that I didn't see any real changes.
Nothing about endlessly respawning enemies every 10 minutes..
 

430am

Educated
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Apr 11, 2023
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240
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divine_cybermancy
Incredible, that means there were potentially WAY more, dozens of, softlocks that I've luckily not encountered. And they've fixed this all after a week. Then... what exactly was stopping them from fixing all that before the game release? I'm guessing they completely cut their QA department, spent all the money on cocaine and outsourced their job to someone else entirely.
Also... mutant health nerfed but chimera and pseudogiant HP still the same? :hahano: Fuck me, those things take your entire ammo supply to kill, they're absolutely unreasonable. In fact arena fight 4 is pretty much impossible to complete on veteran with the ammo you're given, its simply not enough. You gotta magdump all that you're given, and then jump at the chimera with your knife.
 

ArchAngel

Arcane
Joined
Mar 16, 2015
Messages
21,871
Incredible, that means there were potentially WAY more, dozens of, softlocks that I've luckily not encountered. And they've fixed this all after a week. Then... what exactly was stopping them from fixing all that before the game release? I'm guessing they completely cut their QA department, spent all the money on cocaine and outsourced their job to someone else entirely.
Also... mutant health nerfed but chimera and pseudogiant HP still the same? :hahano: Fuck me, those things take your entire ammo supply to kill, they're absolutely unreasonable. In fact arena fight 4 is pretty much impossible to complete on veteran with the ammo you're given, its simply not enough. You gotta magdump all that you're given, and then jump at the chimera with your knife.
Or they fixed few thousand bugs before release :D
Or they were adding features until last minute and had no time to do QA
 

ciox

Prophet
Joined
Feb 9, 2016
Messages
1,430
This game was basically released as soon as QA confirmed that it's possible to run from the beginning of the game to the end. Expect a Cyberpunk style rehabilitation process, though complicated somewhat by the franchise's reliance on modding. Probably there will be parallel efforts to "fix the game" on both GSC and modders' sides?
 

430am

Educated
Joined
Apr 11, 2023
Messages
240
Location
divine_cybermancy
had no time to do QA
Then don't release the fucking game. Especially if it can be fixed in a week. These are critical bugs preventing progress that are easily discovered if they played it once through. Me and everyone else I talked to who played the game had softlocks midgame (several times) and had to use noclip. There's a person just last page who said the same.
That said, shilling for GSC... belter or paid? Call it.
 

Gerrard

Arcane
Joined
Nov 5, 2007
Messages
13,149
And other, more than 20 different issues with AI.
Also, we fixed approximately 100 different crashes, including potential memory leaks and EXCEPTION_ACCESS_VIOLATION issues.
And 7 other minor audio & sound bugs.
Some additional minor bugfixes.
And 20 other different bugs in the cutscenes.
And 10 more minor issues.
And more minor bugs.
And approximately 120 other issues within the main line, side missions, and encounters.
And approximately 50 other issues were fixed.
And approximately 50 minor “anomalies”.
And a couple more things are fixed.
And approximately 50 more bugs.
Why do they do not post the full patch notes?
Sounds to me like a deception.
Because someone would have to write them.
 

ArchAngel

Arcane
Joined
Mar 16, 2015
Messages
21,871
had no time to do QA
Then don't release the fucking game. Especially if it can be fixed in a week. These are critical bugs preventing progress that are easily discovered if they played it once through. Me and everyone else I talked to who played the game had softlocks midgame (several times) and had to use noclip. There's a person just last page who said the same.
That said, shilling for GSC... belter or paid? Call it.
No shilling, I am just stating two common reasons why games come out buggy. Sure they could have postponed but maybe M$ said no delays or maybe they calculated this was best time to earn most money or they knew if they delayed they would just push more unfinished features and release with even more bugs.
 

ciox

Prophet
Joined
Feb 9, 2016
Messages
1,430
The game was already delayed many times, there has to be a limit to how much you can fuck around.

More interesting thing I heard was that apparently Chernobyl NPP was supposed to feature in this game, but was cut at the last minute. There's still traces of it left in the game.
Kind of goofy when COP didn't feature it either and didn't really have any compelling final area.
 

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