A-Life Patch 1.1 Tested - Following NPCs Around the Map (S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2)

What happens if you follow Mutants and Stalkers around the map without interfering?
I have tested this for a many hours to see how they travel and interact together.
Some info about the process:
I had to follow an npc with detached camera whilst hiding my skif to prevent aggro, once the npc despawned, each cut you see in the video is because the npc despawned and i had to move up and spawn them back in to continue filming.
Because of this it is likely that the enemies we see spawning in are on the edge of my skifs online "bubble" spawn radius even though my camera is right next to them, although I do think there is some kind of event spawner happening sometimes seperatly from the tracked alife.
Thanks for taking the time to watch my video, If you enjoyed it please Subscribe and you can also check out my Stalker 2 details/secrets playlist if you’re interested.
#alife #stalker2 #stalker #heartofchornobyl #heartofchernobyl #gameplay #nocommentary #stalkergameplay

[@zoneslug]

It's not perfect but it's possible to track NPCs across the map even when they despawn, enemies still spawn in and fight right away sometimes and there are some glitches but it's a good step in the right direction. Edit: also let me know what other testing might be interesting or useful for my next video.

[@nolzed3360]

thanks, hopefully there will be more videos like this

[@zoneslug]

@@nolzed3360 Thank you for the support I appreciate it

[@ghstproject]

It's far from perfect but it works for now. I just saw like 3 monolith spawn in the swamps alongside 2 degy corps LMAO... Everything about that felt wrong knowing the lore having already played 3 out of the 4 endings in more than 200 hours and all previous games! :D Those updates made the game feel more alive! The thing I like the most is the random gunshots in the distance knowing that there are really now NPC's having a fight! I can't wait to get my hands on the official mod tools if we ever get them...

[@satelitetvbulgaria]

Hi! I don't want to argue or sound like a troll or anything negative like that but those npc groups you are following are not "despawned" as long as you are seeing them. They will keep living their life as long as you can see them but that happens since 1.0. And once you leave them they will despawn out of existence never to be seen again. I guess the only way to truly prove the offline AI is working is to see a random group of traveling stalkers, then leaving them and meeting them somewhere entirely else which is impossible to produce unlike in the three other games because that is not yet a coded feature in Stalker 2. The exclusion of course being the guards and mission givers and traders/medics/technicians around campfires and hubs who are always there. Also npc's can not travel between regions of the map and probably never will because most geometry at transitions does not allow that for npc's. The pigs at the bridge die by death field (insta-kill radiation) which is interesting as that is ment for the player. In any case your videos are quite amusing but I still stand by my statement - the game does not calculate and remember where all npc groups are at a given time. There is almost no offline A-life system of any sort yet.

[@robinhood263]

It still feels fake, even when the game tries to do its best. Spawns are obvious, even if you don't see them. Like in the gunfight with zombies when other group of Loners joins in. I know they just spawned behind the camera and did not existed a second ago, despite camera itself never captures them spawning. Thus a-life doesn't feel alive. It breaks immersion so much...

[@FIIIP.]

My dad walking to school simulator

[@ScarGhost7]

HAHAHAHAHAHAH

[@ScarGhost7]

Hello hello dad? Dad! Daddy!? Daaaaady?

[@docwhiskey996]

"Back in my day we stalked the zone to school uphill both ways fighting monolith and snorks w nothing but canned meat and a makarov with no ammo!" -Dad(probably)

[@mr.bright5712]

good one

[@DSplatter]

@@docwhiskey996”back in my day, we had to turn off the brain scorcher just to get to the CNPP, just to pick up an artifact for show-and-tell, make it out of the zone, walk the rest of the way to school just to get a C from the teacher”

[@tlh1588]

That bridge is highly radioactive btw thats why they died. player cannot cross it

[@zoneslug]

Oh that makes sense now thanks

[@ToddsDiscGolf]

I died on that same bridge right next to cement factory

[@club4ghz]

Radiation does not work this fast unless you're on the planet orbiting neutron star.

[@maxquiet4290]

​@club4ghz This is how it works in every FPS shooter with radiation as the game mechanic

[@whyksen]

@@maxquiet4290 Game mechanics that replace invisible walls

[@Demons972]

Waaay better work than those 100k subscribers channels do, they only read the list of patches within the update for 10 mins with some gameplay in the background completely unrelated to said update. keep up the good work bro.

[@simple-human-being]

yup, it's the SAME each time, so annoying

[@alanwatts8239]

And they still get a ton of stuff wrong.

[@Exhalted1]

Yeah rambling hell, clear and concise informational content is a rarity on youtube these days I'll add the funniest one yet a guy was reviewing a life 1.1 update and was like whoah! Everything is so chaos now! Wow those guys just spawned right in front of me, they fixed everything!!! Like bruh how clueless can you be lol if they spawned in from of you it ain't working right

[@zoneslug]

I appreciate it a lot thanks

[@Originalchili]

Hi guys open world games here

[@vultronarchmage5254]

Something I remember mainly in Call of Pripyat was the group of NPCs returning to the base at night and leaving at dawn, now in Stalker2 the NPCs that are in the bases, only stay in the base

[@hackjuniordf]

How cool! Just like they were going out on patrol? That would be nice to see...

[@YoutubeCommentor2]

They do leave and come back though

[@YoutubeCommentor2]

In rookie village you can see this

[@saltycarl6581]

@@hackjuniordf The older games are pretty janky but the AI was so cool. The jank wasnt bad it was just a strange fps engine.

[@Spaceboyy95]

Waking up at the break of dawn, leaving the ship with 15 other stalkers, then immediately getting into a clusterfuck of mutant vs bandit vs stalker was so fun

[@Sandwich420]

They used to spawn randomly in dumb places. Glad it's getting back to the Stalker normal!

[@silent_stalker3687]

Pigeon flying into owl nest to lay egg vibes.

[@VolvoMoose13]

Idk bro yesterday I was walking for like 10 minutes and the game autosaved after the first 5. After 10 minutes I died and reloaded the 5 minute save. All of a sudden I received that white indicator that enemies are behind me where they were not before.

[@russia4biden221]

Not even close, the update did nothing

[@niyiu3547]

Combat AI seems to need work, too. They just shoot, walk a few steps around and have unlimited ammo, same with the grenades. Would be more realistic, if they'd actually search for cover before engaging or even prepare and ambush and change their behaviour, if people died. Running away, calling for backup via radio on the losing side, which A-Life reacts to and sends allied squads there. More aggressive engaging, taunting, cheeki breekis and flanking on the winning side. Grenades should be more rarely thrown by non-military factions also.

[@Colonelgliz]

Agreed

[@Seyanoo]

Yeah, I’m hoping this gets implemented because so far Stalker 2 is extremely disappointing for me personally especially since I loved the original

[@foolgoboom8766]

(1.1)One time a bandit escaped from me after I killed his friends

[@Dramaram]

Last of Us 2 had the most incredible combat AI I've ever seen. If they could get AI to perform similarly to TLOU, in addition to A-Life, I'd be a very happy camper lol

[@Originalchili]

​@@SeyanooI feel like if you think the game is already "really disappointing" I don't think updates are gonna change your mind, you may want to cut losses and move on

[@bradleyjenkins2271]

That bit at <a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="362">6:02</a> was sick Guy tries to ambush a squad that’s camping all by himself, only to run back up the hill, gets shot, another squad up the hill comes to investigate, all while one 3rd party squad hears the commotion and comes to shoot them down THAT ladies and gentlemen, is A-Life, that was so cool to see

[@5654D]

It's starting to look good! Now enemies should die after a few shots, and not magazines 😂

[@Deceneu66]

And they all went to the same Stormtrooper Marksmanship Academy 😅

[@EroticOnion23]

Looks like the AI (both humans & mutants) will fight to the death and never retreat, like freakin' terminators not very immersive...maybe that's still bugged?...🤔

[@neferpoyaz4037]

@@EroticOnion23 they can't really get away they do follow each other or follow the ones that trying to escape

[@EroticOnion23]

@@neferpoyaz4037 I know, I literally had enemies chase me for 1km back to base lol…probably would have chased me forever…

[@boxkicker7784]

I hope you keep making these videos. Very informative and important to understanding how the a-life is functioning. Thank you.

[@zoneslug]

You’re welcome! Thanks

[@4ja2vi0]

I would love to see GSC implement the misfire/jam mechanic onto the npc's guns. I assume most npc's guns are given a rng durability before they unexpectedly donate them to the Zone or skif. If this is the case, hopefully it wouldn't take too much work to implement the mechanic onto npc's. I think it would give these encounters another level or factor dynamic potential, making firefights more interesting to be in and watch.

[@VooDooEf]

now we need stalker trowing bolts, avoiding anomalies, searching for artifacts with detectors, looting corpses and gathering weapons etc, as it was in call of pripyat

[@Толег-е1л]

Cant remember stalkers throwing bolts in CoP. And i saw them looting artifacts from anomalies only once in Pripyat

[@troleslayer7221]

Its the first time its felt like a-life was even present in the game. Still needs lots of ironing out but its shifted me from skeptical to hopeful.

[@zoneslug]

Good to hear, I think this game has a great future

[@mkzhero]

Idk about that, just feels like a longer range spawn..

[@Pidalin]

But what developers say it's fixed is not fixed, they are kidding us, you still see random spawns and even when a-life kind of works, it's a mess, not how people react in real life, there is ridiculou samount of NPCs and mutants around you and constant battle, that doesn't make any sense. In real life you don't randomly walk and then start shooting, you go carefully and when you see danger, you will go in a different way, that's what a-life should do, not constant neverending pointles gunfire with unlimited ammo, it just looks bad and unnatural to me.

[@Ghost572]

@@Pidalin they are working on it quit crying about it. This game will have an interesting development with mods etc and this patch 1.1 atleast starts to get A-life working better. It's better than them just pretending it doesn't exist.

[@happyhavoc-]

In a few years, I feel like this game modded will be one of the best survival experiences ever made

[@NeakMeakk]

GAMMA 2 and Anomaly 2 are going to be insane. Hopefully they will make it to Xbox as well.

[@SSlhouser]

Dude, modded stalker alredy is one of the best survival experiences ever made, u dont need to wait, go play anomaly or gamma.

[@Waaaltz_]

Stalker 2 vanilla? I don't think so, it'll be Anomaly and GAMMA. Modders are the one to make things even more interesting.

[@zoneslug]

I agree it will be amazing

[@dmsellers]

⁠@@Waaaltz_dude literally said modded in the original comment.

[@AstoraNoble]

I love these videos, they're like lil nature documentaries or trailcams for the Zone lol, it's cool to see A-Life functioning :3 Thanks for making these !!

[@zoneslug]

Thank you, I appreciate the comment

[@S3mj0n]

Good effort with the patch. Maybe some day this game will come close to the original trilogie. Not yet, but i have a bit of hope

[@artemis3247]

The question is where these NPCs are going? In Stalker Call of Pripyat for example, Stalkers visited anomalies, traveled to different locations, even searched for the artifacts with a detector in their hands. And here... They are just walking...

[@Payload25]

It's just a beginning ! Full A-Life 2.0 coming 2025 !

[@GOrunKOwatchItch]

Few more patches and updates and I'm walking with my boys all over the map talking about canned food shooting the sh*t out of duty, monilith and mutants, stealing guns and ammo for Sidorovich.

[@m.a2894]

Duty is alright

[@Denys101]

on <a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="325">5:25</a> the bandit didnt touched the injured stalker but in all previous games they would execute them with pistols and all other factions towars each other

[@mykyta1235]

yes, and you see, your comment is not popular because it has a good sense and talks about real sheit instead of licking GSC's butts on HOW GOOD THEY ARE WITH PATCH AFTER CROWD OF IDIOTS HAS PAYED 30 USD FOR ASSET-FLIP

[@dienand_gaming]

Much improved from the first release

[@MINIMANUS]

<a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="206">3:26</a> magic spawn

[@АрсенийСоколов-о5е]

When the player moves away from the squad, the game makes squad invisible to save computer resources. But if the player decides to return, the game will draw this squad again. In theory, this allows you to cross paths with the same stalker several times in different corners of the zone, creating the appearance of a living world. But judging by the video now, the average lifespan of a stalker outside the base is no more than several minutes

[@zoneslug]

Yes it’s a bit too chaotic at the moment

[@Pidalin]

than why NPCs are still spawned next to me, why friendly stalkers are spawned in middle of battle? It doesn't work as developers say, I believe that they programmed something in Unreal Engine and they themselves have no idea what they created and how it works

[@vovin8132]

@@Pidalin It would take way too many resources to run the old A-LIFE system in this new open-world style. They have to compromise by having squads spawn in. The real question is, how do factions conquer territory and spread around, because before the patch, I assumed it was tied to the faction's uniform I was wearing. I had Freedom guys spawning in to help me fight the Chimera in Zaton for instance, and I happened to be wearing a Freedom suit. Then I was wearing Spark gear and the friendlies spawning near me were Spark. And even before all of this, I was working with the Nooners wearing their gear, and guess who was spawning in to back me up.

[@Pidalin]

@@vovin8132 But that doesn't make any sense!! It worked on hardware from around 2008, how is it possible that it can't work now? Yes, world is much bigget, but that's why a-life has online and offline feature, it just doesn't make any sense what they say, they just don't want to admit that Unreal Engine is piece of shit and they are not able to do it. And spawning of stalkers to help me is the most annoying thing, I want to do it by myself, I don't want to be constantly looking around if I don't shoot friendly NPC accidentally. This is not a-life when you start a fight and everyone is spawning around you, there are obviously not stalkers that were just traveling near you, it doesn't make any sense, they are spawned next to you on purpose and that looks bad and annoying to me, I don't want it, empty zone looks better than this broken a-life. About spawning of factions, I think it depends on regions, I wear random suits and I don't feel like it has any effect on who is spawning around me, when I am close to duty base, duty guys are spawned, but I would be happier if nobody was spawned and just let me be and finish what I wanted to do there, not starting WWIII everywhere where I step.

[@vovin8132]

@@Pidalin I don't know if you've actually played STALKER 2, but it's a large, open world game. The original games were not open world; they were composed of multiple maps linked together with loading screens. That means, if anything, only minimal resources were running things happening in unloaded maps in the original games. You can't have every sprite running autonomously in this game because it requires a ton of memory to run calculations for each of them. Not only this, but this game has so many narrative directions and paths that I am amazed that it is even playable WITHOUT this A-LIFE system randomly interfering with progression. Designing something like this is extremely complex, and was probably the hardest part of the project. And we modern AI tech, they could make a much better alternative that replicates A-LIFE without all of the background processes, but the fanboys would cry because it's not what they want. Day one, half of the fanboys were crying about hardware problems already; devs have to account for the fact they need this game operational for everyone, not just a minority of us that know how to run a computer properly. How people didn't see this coming is beyond me.

[@hackjuniordf]

At 3::00, the npcs should check the enemy's body to loot it, this would make the game much more immersive! Imagine running to the place where you heard shots and when you get closer, you see the looted body and the soldiers moving away, or the soldiers looting the body and picking up the weapons that dead enemies dropped, or the soldiers telling you not to get closer because the loot is theirs and one of them approaches, checks the body in your presence and then moves away after looting it? This would be way more imersive and really cool to see that happening!

[@GreenPigeon-in3cs]

I believe that is the plan (pretty sure that was in OG game). It's amazing we have an implementation (although it needs work) in stalker 2 rn, seeing as most of us thought they just lied and it was FC system. It's not, it has the offline feature. So we just got to let them cook this. This game is going to be THE game to buy and play once it's cooked and mod tools are released and modders that created anomaly / GAMMA get their hands on it.

[@TheStacato]

I did actually catch a Merc up north of Malachite looting his dead friends body after a firefight between them and some mutants but this is the ONLY time I have seen it. I'm not even sure if he was looting it but he was crouched down next to the body moving his hands like he was searching and when I searched the body once he'd stood up there was nothing on it. He had another downed comrade 2 metres away that hadn't been touched yet and he still had all his loot on him. Not sure what to make of it as I arrived after they had won the fight but still interesting that he may have been doing so.

[@jamesFX3]

They most likely will eventually add that feature at some point since animations for npc searching/healing (they look the same) a downed body already exists in the game. Some modders are already thinking of adding it themselves (if GCS doesn't), they are mostly waiting for the release of the stalker 2 modding toolkit thats coming sometime next year. GSC devs are mostly focusing on bugs/performance fixes for now before adding/re-adding new features or modes like pvp multiplayer into the base game.

[@Jacoboferlo]

​@@GreenPigeon-in3csat least in CoP it was

[@EvilTim1911]

Yup as, @TheStacato mentioned, I've also noticed NPCs looting bodies but only two times in like 30 hours. Like a lot of things in this game, it seems to be only half-working

[@OXY187]

Ah yes, the so called A-Life Simulation. NPCs travelling from A to B isn't A-Life.

[@V1ctor_y]

I cannot believe that OG trilogy has still better A-Life than Stalker 2, but sadly, I have to admit that. Their aim is still horrible but overall it seems better than it was before. 110 GB patch is insanity tho, this game will soon take all of my place on my hard drives.

[@mykyta1235]

lol you don't have to, it's just an obvious fact. The game is a pure garbage rn. Absolutely awful asset-flip. They put from zero to little effort in almost every aspect of game. They could not even make WATER reflections correct, they just used ready library without even working on space reflections. Everyone who worked with UE will detect this. You cannot even imagine how many REAL asset-flip is going on in Stalker 2 instead of really hard work they present it as. It's a world-wide scam. And I AM both stalker fan for all my life since I was 12 and from Ukraine. Imagine how tought it is for me to say this truth...

[@Wilkbezstada]

Thank you for your observations, it indicates that system is going in right direction. Thrilled to see what devs deliver next year!

[@zoneslug]

No problem thanks for watching!

[@xdregon25x55]

It feels like theres to much going on. Like not natural at all. Way better then before for sure but alot of room to improve. Also the AI does not take cover like they used to do in the OG games. They just wiggle around and keep shooting without running to cover to reload or running away from a grenade. The AI is still very simple and dumbed down. But within a month they atleast improved the state.

[@EvilTim1911]

Yeah it's crazy to me that the mutants seem to have better "seek cover" logic than the humans in this game. It feels silly that mutants like fleshes, dogs, bloodsuckers, cats, boars and whatnot all have the sense to hide in cover when they can't reach you, yet humans just seem to walk slowly and shoot completely out in the open

[@viktorhusiev6150]

It's probably the only channel that shows real updates, not only reads the patch notes. Thx a lot, nice work!

[@MarcusHelius]

I'm noticing NPCs throw grenades at the exact same time a lot, their decisions in combat seem to be more "timer" based rather than situational. NPCs are not interested in 'finishing off' downed enemies, unlike in the original games where they would take out a pistol and perform a 'coup de grace'. NPCs are not interested in their kills, no looting or checking dead bodies.

[@mykyta1235]

yeah, and those GSC asset-flip-scammers called this A-Life 2.0, damn. AND THEY SUCCESSFULLY SOLD THIS BS

[@aurealis2041]

"Following NPC's around" Bro became an actual stalker

[@onceuponatimeonearth]

Very interesting, thanks for recording a follow up! Cool to see even the mutants appear to do some actual roaming!

[@zoneslug]

No problem, thank you

[@I_am_a_human_not_a_commodity]

This was a great video! Thank you for actually putting in effort instead of doing the "read patch notes with unrelated gameplay in background" thing.

[@DuwMinh]

one thing thats still missing and which will ever happen without official modding tools regarding A-Life: NPC's actually 'doing' shit like artifact hunting and texting things in the zone text-chat. "Wow i've just found a XYZ in Area!!" "Nice" "We're under attack by a group o X-dudes in area!" "I've just seen a stalker fighting off a bloodsucker" etc etc

[@Standolfino]

<a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="135">2:15</a> there is a heavy radiation, its nice to see that it can kill monsters too

[@shynodaa]

Npcs do not crouch during combat to reduce the chance of hitting them, as was the case in the shadow of Chernobyl, for example. And they do not react to the death of their comrades. They do not run from a grenade. The corpses of the dead do not loot, as it was, for example, in the call of Pripyat.

[@АрабАрабович-к7е]

They run from a grenade, they scream when someone die

[@jayreaper7486]

Ya def a right step. I was not in the best position with low ammo on long journey and followed 5 allies goin the same direction as me

[@IHaveBadWiFiBro]

<a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="219">3:39</a> bro just threw a nade at 2 of his own guys

[@NeakMeakk]

Relatable

[@xlexey]

Their fault 🤷🏼‍♂️

[@TheAndronKolaider]

Didn't expect bloodsucker to die to fleshes.

[@gerarderloper]

Would love to see A-Life use food/medical stuff, and also do some looting themselves which you could later find on their body as a surprise bonus or BUY off them instead of every single stalker having the exact same stuff.

[@TheArtistocratic]

If anything, this shows me the the game sorely needs additional animation points for AI to find cover in open fields. It's weird to see so many trees around them but their basic instinct is to walk slowly and shoot at one another from a few feet away. They don't run away to find cover, generally because there is none or the animation cover doesn't trigger on anything but a big ass tree, so it sorely impacts the "immersion." Granted, in first person with bullets and grenades flying it's a lot more easy to fogive, or forget, but it does show a flaw in the AI when viewed in God Mode.

[@J.B.1982]

It's unacceptable, really. Meaning, it's not a state of gameplay that I would consider good enough to play. Feels like they just started beta testing.

[@MrZlocktar]

And it's the moment when it hits you.. Stalker Clear Sky had all those dynamic covers. Stalkers were even able to lie on ground and shooting at you. It was animation for stalkers with sniper rifle on elevation points. But it was all dynamic, not just scripted for the scene.

[@DarrickSiobban]

I've seen NPC heal each other its pretty cool, I think they will give the NPC more command and functionnality with time

[@f.m848]

Back in the day Stalker 1 blew my mind. I killed a couple of dogs and I was going around and when I was passing by I saw a Flesh dragging the dog body to its lair! no game was doing stuff like that back then!

[@Krahamus]

Yah its better, but they need to get rid of random spawning like these zombies appeared out of nowhere, breaka immersion quite a bit

[@Fer-5059]

Maybe in a few patches.

[@F1stzz]

If you can't see em spawning in front of you then there's nothing immersion breaking. Quick reminder: the actual gameplay is not flying the freecam all across the map, lol

[@Krahamus]

@@F1stzz if its not immersion breaking for you good for you then, but now zone feels like warzone, it should have less action, and it feels this way because random encounters happens not only in your players radius but also npc who travels also have random encounters spawns, so if you bump into group of npcs you will have 2x times spawn of random encounters, random encounters never been part of stalker games, thats why i personally want them remove it or let it to be turned off, i rather have less action but more thrilling than every 2 minutes.

[@wife_beater_]

​@@Krahamus people complained that there wasnt enough fights going on in the zone, and now yall complain there is too much action going on? Stop complaining and get a refund if nothing can make you happy

[@Thesavagesouls]

That game is a disguised early access for the price of a AAA full release.

[@FloppyGlass]

A really good way to track this would be with the pda. If we could tag and watch teams on the pda permanently and then check their movements across the map. The older games did this in some instances where they would show npcs as dots on the pda map

[@vitaliyivahiv7245]

it irrotates me so much that everyone is so bullet spongy

[@sulyokpeter3941]

100% towards the good step from the devs. Need more changes and fixes for sure. It will be fine later, give it couple of months. Iam pretty sure the game itself will feel more different than now later on.

[@xSwainkx]

for the first a life patch this was way better than i expected, and things are only gonna get better.

[@R3TR0J4N]

<a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="371">6:11</a> thisf the most bandit of em all 😂

[@MyOldNameWasTaken]

<a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="207">3:27</a> Zombies apear out of nowhere? I hope eventually if enemies do apear out of thin air, they do it far enough so the player can't see it or they get rid of that altogether and make it so npcs spawn in offline mode only and have the player just come upon them by chance instead.

[@zoneslug]

I have a feeling there is still a spawner for like random events happening but personably I think it would be better just normal offline and online a life alone

[@TSK_Silver]

3:43 i mean you can see one of the dudes just despawn, so i don't think a life is looking too good

[@barosso2627]

@@TSK_Silver he's a paid youtuber to advertise false info like the other pathetic youtubers are doing now. They all clame A-life is back, improved etc. Meanwhile in all of those videos I see npcs/mutants spawn&despawn. Disgusting behaviour.

[@TSK_Silver]

​@@barosso2627 i honestly don't believe these guys intentionally mislead people, very few people are actually going to test the A life in stalker and just say that it got updated, which is true but its still not fully implemented it seems

[@MrBaKalu]

@@barosso2627 they do not spawn/despawn, they just getting rendered at such close distance. They still there even if you don't see them, it is how a-life works. If you encounter someone - they getting visible. But issue this range too close and you see them "just spawn" and they need to fix this

[@arforafro5523]

Played the new patch today and I'm often hearing distant gunshots as faction groups engage each other, really cool to hear that more frequently compared to before 1.1 when it very rarely happened and if it did it was a firefight happening a stone throws away by two groups that spawned practically on top of each other due to the small spawn radius. If NPC's looted and the Call of Chernobyl like PDA messages was a thing it would be gold, and considering the community cooked a very similar mod to the official 1.1 (if not practically identical, I did not install the A-Life mods to know) I'm pretty hopeful we'll get those soon. Whenever our big free play baseline mod arrives to STALKER 2 whatever it happens to be called we'll be in for a wild ride with the new seamless map and prettied up models and animations.

[@Denys101]

Very big downgrande with human NPCs is that they stooped looting bodies and taking better weapons from the ground like they used to do in CoP I think peak of A-Life system was in CoP

[@psychedellictoxin1195]

I love this so much! More please!

[@BrusMag]

Самый информативный канал по a-life. Это твоя тема, продолжай в том же духе ❤

[@zoneslug]

I appreciate it thanks a lot

[@Evgene_BF]

Исправить бы поведение мутантов(страх ярость,спокойствие,засады после ранения, какие-нибудь брачные игры между собой или сон если они в далеке и тебя не видят),добавить бы как они едят трупы,а бандтиты обыскивают убитых сталкеров,сталкеры же ищут артефаткты вокруг аномалии,долг охотится на на мутантов и тому подобное,работы еще много,но начало положено 🎉

[@Dagner_Friss]

Такой Алайф в моде Зов Чернобыля, там нпс охотятся на артефакты, лутают трупы, плоти трупы едят или спят, война группировок между собой, там например я помню взял квест на кордоне у нпс, часов 17 играл забыл про него, потом смотрю он уже в Припяти тот нпс, прошел смотрю он в лагере сталкеров сидит чилит, там много таких моментов, а мод аномали улучшил эту систему, надеюсь что-то подобное будет и тут

[@larrybraham4884]

I am still waiting to leave the first area. I uninstalled right before the atch came out. It doesn't matter seeing the patch is massive anyway. I am still going to try and be patient but this looks and feels so much better. Thanks for the in depth look.

[@zoneslug]

No problem youre welcome

[@0PureFear0]

I swear things still just spawn out of nowhere still. I've never seen more snorks and things pop up 20 meters away

[@averageguy388]

I’m honestly very impressed how they’ve already made such progress towards A-Life. This is awesome content

[@IHaveBadWiFiBro]

this new a life still sucks, they just spawn in front of you now and detect you before you detect them. they're almost instantly aggro too

[@SalvatoreCannistraro099]

Yeah. This is because unreal engine 5 cannot handle a real time simulation on the full map of the zone, the game would crash, it is already too demanding

[@karparik07]

Це виглядає вже краше ніж було раніше

[@monsterbuster1]

Kagebunshin dog (i don't know the name) is really annoying enemy in this game

[@Ahtnagarp]

HAHA, "kagebunshin dog" term is so funny. We call it psy-dog if im not mistaken

[@monsterbuster1]

@Ahtnagarp i can handle bloodsucker as long as i have shotgun, but this so called psy-dog. I just waste all my ammo only for killing the clone. Now i know how naruto's villain feel for fighting naruto

[@worldbrake1667]

What's really missing for me is the PDA messages, they're what complete a-life in ny eyes.

[@BarManFesteiro]

isnt that just a mod in the other games? i cant remember if clear sky has it vanilla

[@nikitogaming6353]

It wasn't a vanilla feature, you're missing a mod added by anomaly originally

[@bulletghost3452]

@@nikitogaming6353 No, it was vanilla in CoP, you only had PDA messages from story missions/side quests in Clear Sky and SoC.

[@lucaspereirahmj]

​@@bulletghost3452 he is talking about pda updates about stalkers deaths, battles happenig and stashes looted, and yes, these only existed on mods

[@DBumple]

Bro keep your expectations to what existed in the original games. Wait for the mods if you want those features.

[@BanditoBurrito]

I’ve heard some crazy shit happening in the background and I love it

[@ernest1520]

Another group just spawned out of nowhere at <a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="205">3:25</a> and that's how the firefight broke out. So that's about how far the A-Life "fixes" go.

[@SloopJohnB91]

it's not perrfect but it feels so much better. i started a new game last night after beating on the previous patch. I missed the feeling of just hearing random gunfire in the distance that had nothing to do with you. That is back. As a long time stalker fan, i've done my best to defend GSC, but the constant spawn of aggro enemies 15 feet away was very immersion breaking. Glad they're listening and excited to see how this improves in the months to come.

[@TheBluePlacebo]

<a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="325">5:25</a> that last bandit walking off like a giga chad as the only one who survived

[@FMzelucas]

The NPCs are cool and all, but man, they really need some work. Like, they don’t use cover properly or wait for the right moment to attack-they just charge in and die. Stealth? Forget it. They see three enemies chilling at a campfire and think, "Yeah, I can take them head-on!" Spoiler: they can't. Also, they wander into radiation zones like it's a walk in the park, and combat feels more like luck (who throws the first grenade) than actual strategy. It’d be awesome if they had more dynamic behaviors, like retreating, regrouping, or even just heading back to a base to chill and resupply. Right now, they’re just aimlessly roaming until they inevitably die, which is funny to watch but kills the immersion. Give them some smarter decision-making and better pathfinding, and this system could be next level!

[@MINIMANUS]

shootouts always sound like a typewriter, they could have given someone a shotgun, or spread out and fired in bursts

[@Spaceboyy95]

It's getting better. Can't wait until I can spend time watching NPCs doing their thing. it was one of the more fun things to do in CoP

[@zoneslug]

Me too I love when the world makes it own stories

[@edindzaferovic1451]

It's becoming Stalker Clear Sky 2 slowly,grenadiers,faction war A-life etc. 500 gb of patches more and might become CoP.

[@BladeRunner031]

They will get there Im sure.When they add npc looting,when they actually avoid granades,ai combat logic,less spawns out of nowhere,npc draw distance etc. everything will feel much better.I feel if they delayed game one more time it would not be good look so they bite the bullet and release at this state,now we will have a lot of fixes but they will fix it I believe

[@drakodrizzt7795]

Man i didn't realize you were new with the channel! Wish you the best luck! Almost 1k subs🎉❤

[@trisser39]

youre a hidden gem on youtube fr

[@VladBogdan]

It's a great plot for a movie where some guy kills the main character and now he's the main character

[@SilverDashies]

As I understand when npc goes outside player area instead of despawn it enter offline mode and continues walking around map in background only thing I don't understand if this offline mode have radius.

[@BOLP]

I hope they make travelling anomalies, imagine the battle when a tornado begins moving toward your position or a group of bubbles starting drifting across the map

[@datseb997]

Idk why but the Zone after the upadate for me is now an absolute war zone. It will spawn like 2 or 3 patrols most of the time with like 20+ guys sometimes. I don't hate it but damn. It severely tempered exploration. I've been depleted of supplies for like 3 missions straight before I even reach them because of how many enemies just pop me through the foliage.

[@Desh681]

Such is life in this new zone. I’m still updating so this is gonna bite me in the ass real soon

[@zoneslug]

People are reporting if you’re using pre patch alife mods it can spawn way too many enemies

[@EvilTim1911]

Yeah man check your mods if you're using any. I had this same issue but after removing AI spawn mods it's behaving much more normally. The zone feels more alive without being overwhelming. Also with the range of spawns increased, you have a much better chance of seeing enemies at a distance and either avoiding them or engaging first. No more enemies spawning 10 feet behind you. I agree that them being able to see though foliage while being completely invisible to you is completely broken though. Hope they work on this as well.

[@datseb997]

@@EvilTim1911 Yep! You and @zoneslug nailed it. I had to update the A-life mod I had. Fixed it immediately!

[@Churundala]

There is lack of diverse behavior mechanics. No looting, no dispatching of the wounded or healing frendlies, cobmat AI is really simple. For the mutants there is no feeding on corpses or resting. Its certantly a lot better then it was a month ago, but still not on par with call of prypyat. Hope devs will continue working on this stuff, great AI is what made stalker games its name Oh, and the voice lines, npc's used to be very vocal about their actions, I miss that

[@janmichna8605]

For me, the game has the right atmosphere right now, I don't need anything crazy like Anomaly. I started a new save from the beginning without finishing the game. On the second run, the zone is much more lively. More mutants and npc. But the difficulty is sometimes strange. I came across a group of Ward in the first location who had hp as if they had an exoskeleton. I don't know if it's because I'm playing the story line for Spark now, but I would say that they will probably add more side missions, there are a few characters with a blue flag on them, but they will only offer you an empty conversation. If someone has a problem with fps, don't expect significant optimization. I'm playing with this setup: AMD Radeon RX 7900 XT 20G, AMD Ryzen 9 5900X 12-Core, 32 RAM, 2x 2TB SSD, it's better to have Stalker directly on the main SSD drive for smooth game loading, shader loading within a minute, saves in half, it's also good to change the image recalculation in the game, epic setting 160fps. If you really want to enjoy it, you can't avoid upgrading the setup. There's no point in playing on less powerful machines, it heats up unnecessarily and you won't get more than 80fps anyway.

[@TheBontekraai]

Do you play on 1080p or something?

[@t.k.8815]

A LIFE, like Kenshi npcs system will be amazing.

[@EvilTim1911]

I can't believe that bloodsucker didn't even manage to take out one of the three fleshes. Seems a lot more menacing when attacking me

[@Beast-mf7br]

really hope they put some focus on audio as well...still getting audio cues from dead npc's/mutants that I killed several days ago(in real time) is awfully annoying, or the sound of a discarded clip rolling down a 5 degree slope (physics issue mostly)...or the complete lack of sound when trudging through bushes/brush/tree's (lack of collision physics)...also no physics when walking through a puddle, there should at least be some persistent decals for that...couple wet footprints after going from wet to dry terrain...puddle gets murky and muddy after stepping in it with dirty boots etc instead of just being a shiny ground mirror!..there's no footprints whatsoever, come to think of it...more gore physics is definitely needed, we should be able to shoot limbs and heads off as well as chunks of torso considering the arsenal we have (make rpg's, underbarrel launchers and grenades NOT useless af)...the ragdoll physic's are pretty much non-existent as well (aside from randomly shotgun launching shit across the map!....and ffs, please give us the ability to go PRONE!...so disrespectful to snipers!...gimme all that, and I'll do a second and 3rd playthrough no questions asked!

[@Indigente666X]

If I remember correctly, that bridge is full of electrical anomalies but it is possible that it has not been rendered. Some electrical anomalies when they are very close together have that problem currently.

[@EvilTim1911]

No, it's just extremely irradiated.

[@Cosm1c_69]

<a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="299">4:59</a> Wow those animations are so detailed and natural. No other game I played had so good 3rd person view animations that detailed and natural.

[@razielstalker]

So they died on the bridge because you cannot access it. Insta kill whit radiation poisoning. I bet its just a dead zone like many in the game. So its not a bug

[@EvilTim1911]

No, you can get to the other side of that bridge using a different bridge. That other side is part of the playable area, it's just that this particular bridge has extreme radiation.

[@antonyapostolov8252]

The bandit not executing the wounded loner by saying "fraer" is a big miss. In previous games you could walk around, happen to see the end of a firefight and wounded stalkers getting executed, with some pretty awesome one liners, then surviving stalkers would loot bodies. In STALKER 2, stalker do loot bodies but like it takes a really long time, they don't do it immediately, it feels weird. Also, I haven't seen a single stalker artefact hunting, except for the scripted ones like that guy stuck between electro anomalies. A big lot of NPC interactions are missing. In previous games you could deliver a package to some stalker, and find him 5 hours later, 2 regions away dead with that same package you delievered him. STALKER 2 has such big potential but so many things are missing atm...

[@jankalv3511]

I could play this game all day without touching my main character. Looks interesting to just watch and make a bets witch squad will last the longer.

[@izaakramsay4819]

Would be great to see the stalkers looting after clearing an area

[@hq2136]

I love it, someone pls make normal speed version at night

[@falkok15]

The bridge at <a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="135">2:15</a> is radioactive as fuck - which is why I believe those fleshes died there. Neat to see that they are also affected by high radiation.

[@KurdtMk2]

<a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="130">2:10</a> there's extremely high radiation on that bridge. Impassable, even with good radiation protection. One of those places that instakill you.

[@rosgoncharuk2403]

To be fair, it feels a bit like overkill - too many people roaming. It's like it is not a Zone, but a city park in a bad neighborhood... Reduce number of groups by half and it would be good enough.

[@MattStevens9824]

I played a mod with less population in the zone. It did the opposite. It made me look for engagements. It made going out less exciting.

[@J.B.1982]

I think it's subjective. Personally, I'm with your general mindset but people want different levels of engagement. Some people want near nonstop excitement. I like the dynamics of both slow and busy interactions.

[@AshSpots]

Most realistic part is the lone bandit at <a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="330">5:30</a> taking one look at that tunnel and going "Nnnope."

[@SwoopVill3968]

I was hiding in a tower from some bloodsuckers the other day and a six pack of flesh came through only to put the bloodsuckers down. Was crazy to watch

[@vojtasTS29]

This is nothing new. You could follow NPCs like this for kilometers in release, as long as you stayed near enough for them not to despawn. I had a randomly spawned stalker squad in Garbage walk all the way to the main camp through several engagements and sit down there and pull out a guitar. The second you'd lose sight of them before they got to the camp they'd vanish, though.

[@deus_nsf]

Reason why the Fleshes die on the bridge is because its a super heavy radiation area. Looks like for the moment they just have basic motivations, but no fear no real goals. A small step in the right direction :)

[@Pidalin]

I was playing already many hours with 1.1 and spawning next to me still happens, I still here stalkers talking when nobody is around me and friendly stalkers are still spawned into middle of battle, so it's hard to not hit them, I still see spawns in distance, NPCs should always come from somewhere, behind the corner or from some building or something, not just randomly landing from the sky. Maybe patch improved something, but it definitely didn't solve the problem, game still doesn't have real a-life, it's just random spawning and developers are kidding us. I just don't believe them that there is actual a-life.

[@_mb_2617]

I believe that in CoP stalkers would even finish off wounded of opposite faction. Can anyone confirm that? Either way I hope they will add it to the AI in HoC. It was so raw but fitting detail.

[@zoneslug]

I have seen them revive their teammates a few times

[@_mb_2617]

@@zoneslug Yeah, there are some nice interactions already. As seems to be a recent catchphrase: Let them cook!

[@xclearsky3284]

In call of pripyat some squad stays in anomalous field hunting artifacts they even pull out a detector scanning the area

[@rift_rat]

Holy shit! You only have 637 subscribers! WHAT?