S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl Patch Brings Major A-Life 2.0 and AI Improvements

GSC Game World has released patch 1.1 for S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl with more than 1,800 fixes. It offers numerous improvements for A-Life 2.0, with more NPCs now roaming the Zone and correcting an issue preventing them from existing in the Offline state. NPCs will no longer spawn behind the player, and the distance they’re visible is “greatly extended.”

Other welcome changes include A-Life NPCs actually attacking enemies to expand their territory. Players should also see more encounters with them and a greater diversity of groups encountered (with different sizes and factions). General improvements have also been made to the AI, including NPCs quickly detecting crouched players, entering doors without opening them, teleporting to restricted areas, and more.

Check out some of the patch notes below with full details here. S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl is available for Xbox Series X/S and PC – head here for our review. It sold one million copies in two days and has already become profitable.

Major Patch 1.1

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.

AI improvements

• Reduced the number of summons and increased time between spawns of Pseudodog phantoms.
• Fixed an issue when zombies would have their arms and legs twisted while knocked down.
• Fixed an issue when large mutants would hide behind small cover, such as trees.
• Fixed an issue when mutant limbs stretch sometimes when firing automatic weapons.
• Fixed an issue when bloody visual effects played a few times after Rat’s death from grenade.
• Fixed an issue where NPCs quickly detected the player when he was crouching.
• Fixed an issue where NPCs would enter doors without opening them.
• Fixed the issue when the controller could take the main story NPCs under control.
• Fixed an issue when Chimera would try to enter a narrow passage that it couldn’t enter instead of hiding in ambush.
• Fixed an issue when NPC was teleporting to the restricted areas such as safe zones and hubs.
• Fixed an issue where mutants that were in cover did not change their cover when receiving damage.
• Fixed visual effects of Burer’s telepathic ability.
• Minor combat behavior fixes for NPCs shooting from covers.
• Fixed Burer’s throwing objects animation.
• Fixed some issues with NPC staying idle and refusing to start mission-related dialogs.
• Fixed an issue when mutants kept attacking zombies in knockdown.
• Fixed an issue when NPCs are stuck in aiming animation.
• Fixed an issue when death animation was replayed for an NPC who was resurrected as a zombie.
• Fixed an issue when a neutral NPC stays neutral after a player hits them by melee attack.
• Fixed an issue with some NPCs’ broken arms while shooting.
• Generic improvement of combat experience and NPC pathfinding in big fights with lots of corpses.
• Fixed an issue when Player was able to kill the chimera with the help of carousel anomaly.
• Fixed an issue where NPCs would clip through objects and walls when shooting from covers.
• Minor improvements for peaceful behavior of NPCs.
• Fixed issue where NPCs wouldn’t stop combat on emission start.
• Fixed an issue when some mutants couldn’t jump off an obstacle.
• Fixed issue when NPCs were stuck after the end of emission.
• Fixed bandits’ behaviour after emission ends during the mission Bullseye.
• Fixed an issue where NPCs could teleport if the NPC couldn’t build a route.
• Fixed an issue where NPCs could stop talking to each other after loading a save.
• Fixed an issue when mutant dead bodies fly to a long distance from the places where they were killed by the shotgun.

And over 50 more minor “anomalies” were fixed.