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

[Gerrard]

Have they patched in A-Life yet? According to reddit, it should come any day now.

Spoiler

They won't, because they correctly realized it was an irrelevant feature only autists who spend 300 in-game days observing NPCs in Cordon care about.
All they need to do is make the spawn system not dogshit.

 

[The Nameless One]

Too bad it's an outlier, and a lot of fantastic ideas from Far Cry 2 were not adopted, not even by Far Cry itself It feels like the first stealth game explored everything there was (Thief) and every other game just says fuck it, "crouch = stealth".

Far Cry 2 is fucking garbage that had good fire psychics and a multiplayer map creator stop trying to act like its the greatest FPS game ever made. "Fantastic Ideas" why yes I want to take daily doses of fucking malaria pills, guns falling apart after 3 shots, and African Rebels having better road security than the road to Mexico going into USA.

Technically true though, also sucked ass having the player falsely expect they would get a cure to popping pills which was a gameplay ruining idea. Compared to FC1 it sucks a million unshaven balls by just going brown (literally) and poorly binding the lackluster open world with a forgettable story. MP was alright but nowhere near stuff like BF:BC.

 

[PlayerEmers]

https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1643320/view/525329871842312365

Major Patch 1.1 is here!
Over 1,800 fixes and adjustments, including the first iteration of A-Life fixes.

Happy Holidays, stalkers!​

Just before Christmas and New Year's, we are ready to present Patch 1.1. It is the first major patch for S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl, and it will address over 1,800 issues, including the first iteration of the A-Life fixes.

We understand that the size of the patch is huge and the process of downloading will take some time. We would like to thank you for your understanding, and we will work on this aspect as well. So, let’s begin.

---

A-Life fixes​

• Fixed the issue with spawning NPCs behind the player's back.
• Players can now encounter roaming NPCs across the Zone more often.
• Greatly extended the distance at which A-Life NPCs are visible to the player.
• Fixed the aggressive optimization issue that prevented A-Life NPCs to exist in Offline (out of player's visualization range).
  
  • In Offline mode, A-Life will continue to advance towards their goals over time.
  • Players may now have opportunities to encounter A-Life NPCs they've previously met by following in the same direction as the NPCs.
• Improved A-Life NPCs navigation in Offline using GameGraph (global AI navigation map):
  
  • Fixed multiple issues where NPCs would fail to follow or find a path to their designated goals.
  • Fixed several issues with NPC being stuck in Online-Offline transition state,
• Enhanced A-Life NPCs' motivation to expand territory and actively attack enemies and mutants.
• Fixed issues that could result in fewer A-life NPCs encountered than intended.
• Further contextual actions improvement to ensure seamless transitions between Offline and Online states for NPCs engaged in these actions.
• The groups exploring the Zone are now more diverse regarding possible factions and group sizes.
• Fixed issue that while roaming over the Zone, Human NPCs didn't satisfy their communication needs and talks.

And some other development related improvements.

Surely its fixed

 

[ArchAngel]

https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1643320/view/525329871842312365

Major Patch 1.1 is here!
Over 1,800 fixes and adjustments, including the first iteration of A-Life fixes.

Happy Holidays, stalkers!​

Just before Christmas and New Year's, we are ready to present Patch 1.1. It is the first major patch for S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl, and it will address over 1,800 issues, including the first iteration of the A-Life fixes.

We understand that the size of the patch is huge and the process of downloading will take some time. We would like to thank you for your understanding, and we will work on this aspect as well. So, let’s begin.

---

A-Life fixes​

• Fixed the issue with spawning NPCs behind the player's back.
• Players can now encounter roaming NPCs across the Zone more often.
• Greatly extended the distance at which A-Life NPCs are visible to the player.
• Fixed the aggressive optimization issue that prevented A-Life NPCs to exist in Offline (out of player's visualization range).
  • In Offline mode, A-Life will continue to advance towards their goals over time.
  • Players may now have opportunities to encounter A-Life NPCs they've previously met by following in the same direction as the NPCs.
• Improved A-Life NPCs navigation in Offline using GameGraph (global AI navigation map):
  • Fixed multiple issues where NPCs would fail to follow or find a path to their designated goals.
  • Fixed several issues with NPC being stuck in Online-Offline transition state,
• Enhanced A-Life NPCs' motivation to expand territory and actively attack enemies and mutants.
• Fixed issues that could result in fewer A-life NPCs encountered than intended.
• Further contextual actions improvement to ensure seamless transitions between Offline and Online states for NPCs engaged in these actions.
• The groups exploring the Zone are now more diverse regarding possible factions and group sizes.
• Fixed issue that while roaming over the Zone, Human NPCs didn't satisfy their communication needs and talks.

And some other development related improvements.

Surely its fixed

I see no changes to shit code that made it so enemies respawned in many areas every 5 minutes or so and if you were lucky every 10 minutes or so.

 

[Gargaune]

Enhanced A-Life NPCs' motivation to expand territory and actively attack enemies and mutants.

The beatings will continue until motivation enhances.

Fixed issue that while roaming over the Zone, Human NPCs didn't satisfy their communication needs and talks.

"You're just not the NPC I married anymore, it's like we never even talk now!"

 

[V17]

https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1643320/view/525329871842312365

Major Patch 1.1 is here!
Over 1,800 fixes and adjustments, including the first iteration of A-Life fixes.

Happy Holidays, stalkers!​

Just before Christmas and New Year's, we are ready to present Patch 1.1. It is the first major patch for S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl, and it will address over 1,800 issues, including the first iteration of the A-Life fixes.

We understand that the size of the patch is huge and the process of downloading will take some time. We would like to thank you for your understanding, and we will work on this aspect as well. So, let’s begin.

---

A-Life fixes​

• Fixed the issue with spawning NPCs behind the player's back.
• Players can now encounter roaming NPCs across the Zone more often.
• Greatly extended the distance at which A-Life NPCs are visible to the player.
• Fixed the aggressive optimization issue that prevented A-Life NPCs to exist in Offline (out of player's visualization range).
  • In Offline mode, A-Life will continue to advance towards their goals over time.
  • Players may now have opportunities to encounter A-Life NPCs they've previously met by following in the same direction as the NPCs.
• Improved A-Life NPCs navigation in Offline using GameGraph (global AI navigation map):
  • Fixed multiple issues where NPCs would fail to follow or find a path to their designated goals.
  • Fixed several issues with NPC being stuck in Online-Offline transition state,
• Enhanced A-Life NPCs' motivation to expand territory and actively attack enemies and mutants.
• Fixed issues that could result in fewer A-life NPCs encountered than intended.
• Further contextual actions improvement to ensure seamless transitions between Offline and Online states for NPCs engaged in these actions.
• The groups exploring the Zone are now more diverse regarding possible factions and group sizes.
• Fixed issue that while roaming over the Zone, Human NPCs didn't satisfy their communication needs and talks.

And some other development related improvements.

Surely its fixed

Honestly this seems like they're actually working pretty hard and like the game is on track to be terrific (and finally finished) a year from release. I'd probably be pissed or full of mental gymnastics if I bought it, but I'm not going to be complaining about a game that, as opposed to most crap being released these days, is likely to become actually great by the time it gets cheap enough for me to buy it.

 

[Stavrophore]

Just be patient, being patient is a christian virtue.

 

[The people of Duckburg]

malaria and gun deterioration aren't much of a problem

I vaguely recall that the game wouldn't let you know how many pills you had left until you took the final one, after which your character would be surprised by the empty bottle. Unless my memory is off, which it could be since it's been quite a while, that's inexcusable game design.

 

[DJOGamer PT]

I vaguely recall that the game wouldn't let you know how many pills you had left

there was no UI element directely telling you how many you had, but during the "pill ingesting" animation your character would put all remaining pills in his hand before ingesting one
in other words, it was up to the player to keep track of that
also: 1 bottle = 3 pills

 

[Zewp]

They won't, because they correctly realized it was an irrelevant feature only autists who spend 300 in-game days observing NPCs in Cordon care about.
All they need to do is make the spawn system not dogshit.

Fixing A-Life is about making the spawn system not dogshit. It's going to stop randomized NPCs/mutants spawning in in a 80m bubble around the player and ceasing to exist when they move outside of that bubble. It's also going to result in players coming across mutants and enemies in the big open spaces between POIs, because right now nothing spawns outside of POIs.

I don't really understand what you could have against that, unless you want to play the game like a themepark a la the modern Far Cry games. To each their own, I guess.

I see no changes to shit code that made it so enemies respawned in many areas every 5 minutes or so and if you were lucky every 10 minutes or so.

I've just started a new game to try out how it is with the A-Life fixes, so I'll report back on if this kind of thing was fixed. I suspect we're still going to need multiple big patches for A-Life, going by what their CMs are saying about this update.

 

[Baron Dupek]

1800 fixes? 100+GB patch?
I knew they wanted to follow ShoC's path but that's just overkill

 

[The people of Duckburg]

I vaguely recall that the game wouldn't let you know how many pills you had left

there was no UI element directely telling you how many you had, but during the "pill ingesting" animation your character would put all remaining pills in his hand before ingesting one
in other words, it was up to the player to keep track of that
also: 1 bottle = 3 pills

Sounds easy enough to remember, though I could see people missing it if they get a random attack during combat or something. Can't see why they wouldn't let you check whenever you want to, regardless. Don't want to make it too obvious that that big bottle only contains three pills?

 

[adddeed]

I dont know but i find it really irritating they do this for each section of the patch notes:

• Fixed fps drops that could be created by large amounts of water particles.
• Fixed fps drops during interaction with corpses in shallow water.
• Fixed multiple EXCEPTION_ACCESS_VIOLATION crashes.
• Fixed multiple Fatal Errors, Low Level Fatal Errors, and Assertion Failures.

Overall, over 200 crashes were investigated, and further fixes were implemented.

• Fixed the interaction prompt for healing being active when the player did not have medkit.
• Fixed the issue when some consumables could have been non-interactable.

And up to 20 other related issues were fixed.



Instead of actually listing what these further fixes were or what these up to 20 other fixes were. Just include it in the read me you morons.
Also 1800 bugs fixed? Shows how unifhshed this was upon release.

 

[Zewp]

I dont know but i find it really irritating they do this for each section of the patch notes:

• Fixed fps drops that could be created by large amounts of water particles.
• Fixed fps drops during interaction with corpses in shallow water.
• Fixed multiple EXCEPTION_ACCESS_VIOLATION crashes.
• Fixed multiple Fatal Errors, Low Level Fatal Errors, and Assertion Failures.

Overall, over 200 crashes were investigated, and further fixes were implemented.

• Fixed the interaction prompt for healing being active when the player did not have medkit.
• Fixed the issue when some consumables could have been non-interactable.

And up to 20 other related issues were fixed.

Instead of actually listing what these further fixes were or what these up to 20 other fixes were. Just include it in the read me you morons.
Also 1800 bugs fixed? Shows how unifhshed this was upon release.

It's because they run into the Steam character limit for posts, afaik. Plus the game has so many issues that they'd be writing up patch notes for days if they were to list every single thing.

Either way, I played around a little bit with the A-Life system and it does at least seem like persistence is working now. Spawns are a bit overtuned and probably need to be toned down. I was running around the Lesser Zone on an unmodded, new save and there were shootouts of 15-20 stalkers in some areas. Cool at an outpost, maybe. Not quite so much randomly in the wilderness. Still better than what we had before, so I'm not complaining.

 

[Jinn]

The Zone is healing. Seems like my "in good shape between patches and mods within six months" estimate shouldn't be too far off.

 

[Zewp]

The Zone is healing. Seems like my "in good shape between patches and mods within six months" estimate shouldn't be too far off.

If they stick to their promise to release the SDK in early 2025, modders will do a great job with it by the end of next year too.

 

[deuxhero]

Have they announced what the DLC actually is yet?

 

[Gerrard]

Have they announced what the DLC actually is yet?

Didn't they say long ago that Limansk will be a DLC?

 

[Zewp]

Have they announced what the DLC actually is yet?

They promised a roadmap in December, but nothing so far.

With Steam's new policies they'll have to do it before they can put up the season pass for sale.

 

[ADL]

A lot of us have already paid for the DLCs included in the Ultimate Edition. They haven't been very forthcoming about what those are and what multiplayer will be like.

Steam's changes may not be retroactive but if they're gonna take money for post-launch content, that content should be described in detail.

 

[ferratilis]

They'll "update" the originals on PC, better make a backup just in case.

 

[The Nameless One]

They'll "update" the originals on PC, better make a backup just in case.

They ain't touching Anomaly nor CoC so who cares.

 

[The people of Duckburg]

but if they're gonna take money for post-launch content, that content should be described in detail.

Why would they do that, when you've shown them that you'll support them even if they don't?

A lot of us have already paid for the DLCs included in the Ultimate Edition

 

[ferratilis]

They ain't touching Anomaly nor CoC so who cares.

Anomly and CoC are for spergs, so who cares.

 

[deuxhero]

Have they announced what the DLC actually is yet?

They promised a roadmap in December, but nothing so far.

With Steam's new policies they'll have to do it before they can put up the season pass for sale.

Well there's always the possibility a free roam mode is one of them, which would force them to make A-Life actually functional.