STALKER 2’s latest free update restores major A-life AI features to NPCs — making them more like the original game at last
Stalker 2: Heart of Chornobyl, the long-awaited and highly acclaimed first-person survival shooter, has received a new big update called Patch 1.5.
Much like the previous update, Patch 1.4, Patch 1.5 aims to improve the AI and A Life of all NPCs and enemies while implementing quality-of-life improvements, balance changes, bug fixes, new gear to find, new enemies to kill, and more.
The key method this update plans to improve AI for all NPCs is by making them simulated all the time, even outside the player’s view.
This will allow the NPCs to behave like they did in STALKER: Shadow of Chernobyl (which was recently remastered along with the original Stalker trilogy), and live out their lives in more realistic ways outside of quests or interacting with the player.
As the full list of patch notes for Patch 1.5 is too many to list here (you can find them on the game’s official website), here are the major content highlights for Stalker 2: Heart of Chornobyl’s Patch 1.5 as taken from the game’s Steam page.
Be warned, some of these patch notes will contain story spoilers.
Stalker 2: Heart of Chornobyl Patch 1.5 notes
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Highlights
- A-Life changes
- Life in the Zone is now simulated for all characters, not just those in the player’s view.
- Characters continue to live their lives and pursue their goals in the Zone until they meet their end.
- The player can meet the same stalkers after some time.
- Players may encounter more A-Life characters resting or interacting in various locations, adding to the world’s immersion.
- Characters will no longer respawn directly in front of the player. When the player clears the mutants’ lair, for example, those mutants won’t simply reappear moments later.
- A-Life Director will no longer respawn characters at the edge of visualization. Instead, respawn moved further away from the player, while maintaining the Zone’s population.
- Visualization range is slightly increased. Characters now appear in visualization range with relevant animations and equipped weapons. This reduces the “pop-in” effect and contributes to a more seamless character visualization.
- Added new anomaly: Water Electric Tornado.
- Added Three-Line Rifle weapon.
- Added new handgun Kora.
- Added the new feature: looting of mutant parts.
- Added displaying of available artifact slots for armors in the Upgrade tab.
- The player stash window is increased in size.
- Fixed an issue when the “Take all” button becomes inactive after putting any item to the loot window.
- Added unlockable “Fix all” button in the technician’s upgrade menu, to repair all equipped gear.
- Added reload renewal feature for all of the weapons.
WARNING
The Zone is ever-changing and a new Patch can shift Her structure. If you’ve chosen to walk the path with modifications, know this: they may not withstand the latest shifts. If you have performance or stability issues following the release of Patch 1.5, we recommend you to disable your mods. If you continue to experience issues, please visit https://support.stalker2.com/hc for additional troubleshooting steps and assistance.
AI and Combat
- Fixed an issue when Snork was unable to jump off from some isolated areas.
- Fixed an issue when Controller was able to deal damage by his roar ability out of his line of sight, through the objects and walls.
- Fixed an issue when Pseudogiant was able to stuck at short distances from the player.
- Fixed an issue when Rodents kept making sounds after death.
- Added ballistic falloff on the long distances for NPC`s so they won’t be able to hit players while too far away.
- Improved mutants’ attacking behavior when Player is standing still.
- Fixed issue where Сhimera jump attack deals damage before reaching Player.
- Fixed issue where Burer could be killed while its shield was active if you were close.
- Fixed issue when NPCs take exposed cover while fighting with each other.
- Fixed issue where NPCs could walk in place in peaceful hubs.
Balance
- Fixed generic issue where Mission NPC could have overpowered items in inventory.
- Reworked ammo for machine guns and sniper rifles:
- replaced 762×39 MM ammo with 762×54 MM ammo;
- Sniper rifles (SVDM-2, SVU-MK S-3 and M701 Super) now don’t use light steel core ammo, without weapon upgrade — only super-sonic and armor piercing ammo;
- PKP machine guns, Mark I EMR and Three-Line Rifle can use light steel core ammo by default;
- supersonic ammo now deals way less damage to weapon durability, making it more useful.
- Increased armor penetration for Grom S15 weapon, increased armor penetration and damage modifiers for AS Lavina weapon.
- Reworked damage of Cavalier unique weapon.
- Artifacts’ effects rebalance:
- Horn: decreased chemical and radio protection;
- Rosin: replaced “weight: weak” effect with “endurance: weak”;
- Shell: replaced “radiation: weak” effect with “endurance: weak”;
- Updated some stashes and their markers in the Rostok region.
- Updated some stashes locations in Yaniv region.
- Fixed an issue where price for a common artifact was higher than repeatable quest reward for it.
- Implemented new artifact effect: Durability, that will increase durability of equipped gear.
- Reworked and replaced 7.62 ammo across the map.
Bug Fixes, Crashes, and Performance
- Fixed a noticeable performance drop when entering Generators region from Dead Valley location.
- Fixed an issue that caused the inventory menu to remain open after the Controller used Psy Strike on the player.
- Fixed an issue that caused sound and input loss after quick resume on Xbox platform.
- Fixed an issue when the game becomes unresponsive when loading save, made in certain points of Prypiat, during The Road to the Foundation mission.
- Fixed an issue when Player get permanent and consistent negative effects from uncharged Weird Bolt.
- Fixed an issue which caused the ammo counter to appear when picking up ammo.
- Fixed an issue where the player could get the achievement for clearing a lair without raising an alarm by only performing one kill.
- Fixed incorrect description for ‘Overall quality’ and ‘Mouse aim sensitivity’ options in settings menu.
- Fixed an issue where stamina drain effect was stuck after loading save made in shallow water.
- Fixed an issue where Player was able to get permanent effect and damage from anomaly after loading save made inside that anomaly.
- Fixed performance drops on collision with psy phantoms.
- Fixed an issue where Forced Mono audio setting did not affect music.
- Fixed an issue that caused the vertical field of view to appear reduced when using ultrawide aspect ratios.
- Fixed an issue where the Vortex anomaly icon was shown as Poppy Field on the map.
- Fixed an issue which caused the Drop function to not work while looting.
- Fixed an issue when two Main missions could be tracked simultaneously.
- Fixed an issue when trees and bushes could appear right in front of the player.
- Fixed an issue when the sound of weapon reloading is not played from NPCs in cover.
- Fixed a crash when drinking vodka.
- Fixed an issue when enemy quest markers were remaining at the NPCs after they were killed.
- Improved performance at locations with lots of dialogues pending (e.g. large hubs like Rostok).
- Fixed an issue when the Equipment Tab was becoming unresponsive after looting, putting items in stash or corpse.
- Fixed placeholder texts in upgrade tabs.
- Fixed crash on Xbox Series S that could occur after approaching Chemical Plant location.
- Optimized skeletal meshes for stashes and some interactable objects.
- Fixed an issue with performance degradation when multiple NPCs attempt to open doors simultaneously.
- Fixed severe FPS drops while looking at interactive objects and NPCs at close interact range.
- Fixed different crashes.
Main & Side Quests, Open World Encounters
- Fixed an issue when Korshunov was sliding inside the elevator during The Last Step mission.
- Fixed an issue when Powerplug was missing at Rostok when players needed to get the Control Emitter during the Dawn of a New Day mission.
- Fixed an issue when Scar was leaving the arena and starting to fight with Monolithians if they were not killed during the previous quest objective of The Last Step mission.
- Fixed an issue when Ward’s reputation became negative after the start of the Assault on the Duga mission for the Ward side.
- Fixed an issue when the Player was able to get reward for A Matter of Honor mission twice.
- Fixed an issue that allowed Gray’s Last Hunt mission to be accepted again after completion.
- Adjusted several minor NPC voiceovers.
- Fixed an issue when the elevator door at the top of X-3 lab was closed and blocking further progression during the Legends of the Zone mission.
- Fixed an issue when elevator door to X-17 was closed and blocking further progress during the Visions of Truth mission.
- Fixed an issue when Player was able to stuck behind the Sidorovich bunker door at the end of the combat.
- Fixed NPC relations inconsistencies between encounter and mainline missions.
- Fixed an issue where the main entrance door to Malachite was locked after the Dangerous Liaisons mission.
- Fixed an issue where objective “Fight off Monolith attack” could remain incomplete during The Road To The Foundation mission.
- Fixed an issue where Col. Korshunov could be killed during the Dangerous Liaisons mission.
- Fixed an issue where players could get stuck inside Troposphere Comm Station at the end of Dangerous Liaisons mission.
- Fixed an issue which caused the Ward squad to get stuck during The Assault On The Duga mission.
- Fixed an issue where several objectives could remain active after failing the The Sound Of Music mission.
- Fixed an issue where the Black Sheep mission could remain active in the journal under certain circumstances.
- Fixed an issue where The Sound Of Music mission could not be completed under certain circumstances.
- Fixed an issue where A Job For Sidorovich repeatable mission was able to get stuck uncompleted.
- Fixed an issue where Player was able to get stuck in the dialogue with Sultan during The Mysterious Case mission.
- Fixed an issue where elevator doors to Dalin’s apartment were blocked during A Long Overdue Visit mission.
- Fixed an issue when player can be locked inside the Zalissya’s Clubhouse during the On The Edge mission.
- Fixed an issue when the door leading to the Granite squad arena could close in front of the player during the The Last Step mission.
- Fixed an issue when the player character could be killed by emission during the Escape From The Cage mission.
- Fixed an issue with missing Sgt. Metlov during the Back To The Slag Heap mission.
- Fixed an issue where the Dark Times mission could not progress after the death of Jarl.
Mod Support
Shape the Zone your way with the Zone Kit! Unleash your tinkering nature and modify existing content or create something new — animations, weapons, mechanics, and even wonders of the Zone. Official Mod Support is here, so now is the time to create your own content and use modifications made by your fellow stalkers. You can access modifications at Steam Workshop and Mod.io, and if you want to try making your own, Zone Kit is available for download at: https://store.epicgames.com/uk/p/stalker-2-zone-kit
Other Updates
- Improved pathing for NPCs.
- Improved NPC cigarette smoking animation.
- Added possibility to speed up credits scrolling for PC and XBOX.
- Improved distant and indoors gunshots sounds.
- Improved HUD appearance for changing ammo functionality.
- Enhanced inventory sorting and scrolling on loot windows.
- Enhanced weapon attachments descriptions.
- Adjusted sound volume for medkit usage.
- Added support of 21:9 and 32:9 Aspect Ratio.
- Added an “Auto Detect” button to the graphics settings to adjust graphics presets according to our recommendations for players hardware.
- Rework Ukrainian lip-sync.
GSC Game World continues to refine this long-awaited title to help reach its full potential
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Fans have been requesting that the AI for friendly NPCs and enemies function like in the original STALKER: Shadow of Chernobyl long before A-Life was beginning to get fixed, back when Patch 1.2 launched.
This is because before, the A-Life for NPCs and enemies was broken in Stalker 2. Characters would behave in weird ways, NPCs and enemies would despawn randomly, and NPC and enemies would frequently only spawn next to the player, just to name a few of the issues.
Despite this, Stalker 2 would go on to earn many positive reviews (including a glowing 4/5 review from us at Windows Central) and continue to receive many updates, which have been fixing the game’s tech problems it had at launch.
Hopefully, with this Patch 1.5 update, the new simulated AI for NPCs and enemies will meet fans’ expectations and help them be more fully immersed in the ruined yet beautiful world of Stalker 2.
STALKER 2 is available for purchase on Xbox Series X|S and PC via Windows and Steam. It is also available on the Xbox Game Pass library, allowing Xbox Game Pass Ultimate subscribers to play it on Xbox, PC, and Xbox Cloud Gaming.