ALife Exists and is Called In Game

[Salt Engineer]

So I do really nerdy stuff for work. Offensive research & development mostly, and along with those skillsets comes a desire to dig into technical things. Trolls have popped up claiming that ALife doesn't exist, has never existed, or whatever.

Allegedly, nobody is trolling and making false claims,

Originally posted by Matt:

No one claimed it was a conspiracy to fool people.

but I've included some samples that kicked this post off below:

Originally posted by Paradoxicc70:

Multiple software specialists including myself are able to prove factually that A-LIFE or A-LIFE 2.0 are NOT in the game whatsoever

Originally posted by Wilhelm:

and?` that doesn´t contradict what we said. all claims about a-life not there, vanishing from the store site etc. are true.

This is a obvious lie. We have proof that the game activly DESPAWN NPC when you and the so called bubble go away. This was not in A-Life 1.0. Why should this be now a bug in A-Life 2.0.

Yeah, very trustworthy, a dev who already lied about the atrocious performance that this game suffers from, sorry but i think i'll take the word of my fellow gamers on reddit that took the time to completely dissect A-life or correction hereby the complete lack of it.

There are no A-life period, no need to argue or discuss it, that's the naked truth

Originally posted by Paradoxicc70:

Multiple software specialists including myself are able to prove factually that A-LIFE or A-LIFE 2.0 are NOT in the game whatsoever, nor are they functioning incorrectly as the Community Manager have stated.

Originally posted by Paradoxicc70:

I'm also under the impression that GSC in some way shape or form has activated a bot farm to skew reviews

While having my morning coffee I decided to do research into ALife.

Edit: Let me clarify. Yes, it's surface level. There's very little time between this post:

Originally posted by Salt Engineer:

Originally posted by label_14254afab / ALifeStartSimulation:

r8_2 = sub_142a14170)&var_78, u"Child doesn't exist", r8);
wchar16* const rcx_7 = var_78;

Looks like UE style function code to me.

and the post you're reading. No, it's not an in-depth technical analysis. It was an attempt to answer whether there is "ALife", or if it's all just a grand conspiracy as a handful of posters make it out to be.

First, I did some static analysis. As soon as you filter strings for ALife[i.postimg.cc], there's a litany of them. Some to states:

Originally posted by ALife Action Types ENUMs:

EALifeGroupPriorityType
EALifeGroupPriorityType::Default
EALifeGroupPriorityType::Global
EALifeGroupPriorityType::Local
EALifeGroupPriorityType::Emission
EALifeGroupPriorityType::Quest
EALifeGroupPriorityType::Directed
EALifeGroupPriorityType::Count
ESpawnStype::ALifeGroup

Originally posted by Interesting variables:

bALifeTick
UnkillableByALife

Others appearing to reference the class and function calls

ALife
ALifeStartSimulation

Still more referencing things like points of interest:

UALifePOISubsystem

So let's follow "ALifeStartSimulation"... sub_14254aed0. Cool.

Originally posted by label_14254afab / ALifeStartSimulation:

r8_2 = sub_142a14170)&var_78, u"Child doesn't exist", r8);
wchar16* const rcx_7 = var_78;

Firing up a debugger (and this is a huge pain on Linux), I set a breakpoint at this code specifically, because the moment we attempt to start the simulation, it will freeze and kick me over to it. Think of the breakpoint like a pause button and bookmark all in one.

Sure enough, after hitting continue, the map starts loading the game hits the paused state, and the debugger switches to the highlighted code above.



Listen, I understand there are going to be people that are unhappy for whatever reason, whether their machine is seeing performance issues, or it just isn't what they expected.

Saying that ALife doesn't exist or isn't integrated into the game is a flat out lie, and you'll notice that every single time it's brought up, it's done so by a person with a litany of negative things to say before ALife - and if you let them talk long enough to get to that point - they will still have failed to provide a single shred of proof to back any of their claims.

Their lack of owning the game is gamepass. Their wanting to like it is in direct contrast to bashing it before it launched or hit the review embargo.

It's too convenient.

So here you go. Evidence that ALife is in, functioning - even if buggy - and that the people claiming otherwise are full of it. Now that you've seen proof they're full of it, take the rest of their claims with the grain of salt it deserves.

I'm not saying that ALife is NOT broken, despite some people that are claiming otherwise. But if you want developers to hear your feedback, you're going to need to stop throwing out garbage feedback. Especially when it comes from bad actors.

Edit:
The alternative claim is the developers, instead of attempting to create a new ALife system, created a bunch of dummy sections with the sole purpose of fooling the very people who deny it's existence based on pop-in.

It's a massive conspiratorial stretch, and quite honestly, all the effort trying to make a convincing, but still non-functional, system could just as easily build a half-baked AI governance system to serve as the foundation for ALife. Just saying. We don't need tinfoil for things to be broken.

Edit 2:
Since there are a few people that think it's just copy-paste text:

Originally posted by Salt Engineer:

...
Most of the code related to ALife is in the executable. Strings are a starting point. 1[i.postimg.cc] 2[i.postimg.cc]

Then it's worth taking a look at the related functions like ALifeStartSimulation[i.postimg.cc] being called, and the function itself.[i.postimg.cc]
...

The above can be used in a hex editor or disassembler of your choice to dig in and investigate, or attempt to start modding ALife.

[Mambius]

Originally posted by Salt Engineer:

So I do really nerdy stuff for work. Offensive research & development mostly, and along with those skillsets comes a desire to dig into technical things. Trolls have popped up claiming that ALife doesn't exist, has never existed, or whatever.

While having my morning coffee I decided to do research into ALife.

First, I did some static analysis. As soon as you filter strings for ALife, there's a litany of them. Some to states:

Originally posted by ALife Action Types ENUMs:

EALifeGroupPriorityType
EALifeGroupPriorityType::Default
EALifeGroupPriorityType::Global
EALifeGroupPriorityType::Local
EALifeGroupPriorityType::Emission
EALifeGroupPriorityType::Quest
EALifeGroupPriorityType::Directed
EALifeGroupPriorityType::Count
ESpawnStype::ALifeGroup

Originally posted by Interesting variables:

bALifeTick
UnkillableByALife

Others appearing to reference the class and function calls

ALife
ALifeStartSimulation

Still more referencing things like points of interest:

UALifePOISubsystem

So let's follow "ALifeStartSimulation"... sub_14254aed0. Cool.

Originally posted by label_14254afab / ALifeStartSimulation:

r8_2 = sub_142a14170)&var_78, u"Child doesn't exist", r8);
wchar16* const rcx_7 = var_78;

Firing up a debugger (and this is a huge pain on Linux), I set a breakpoint at this code specifically, because the moment we attempt to start the simulation, it will freeze and kick me over to it. Think of the breakpoint like a pause button and bookmark all in one.

Sure enough, after hitting continue, the map starts loading the game hits the paused state, and the debugger switches to the highlighted code above.



Listen, I understand there are going to be people that are unhappy for whatever reason, whether their machine is seeing performance issues, or it just isn't what they expected.

Saying that ALife doesn't exist or isn't integrated into the game is a flat out lie, and you'll notice that every single time it's brought up, it's done so by a person with a litany of negative things to say before ALife - and if you let them talk long enough to get to that point - they will still have failed to provide a single shred of proof to back any of their claims.

Their lack of owning the game is gamepass. Their wanting to like it is in direct contrast to bashing it before it launched or hit the review embargo.

It's too convenient.

So here you go. Evidence that ALife is in, functioning - even if buggy - and that the people claiming otherwise are full of it. Now that you've seen proof they're full of it, take the rest of their claims with the grain of salt it deserves.

Bro there are still NFT or Crypto files in the game and it wont be featured... so basically these files mean nothing

[Valmirius]

Originally posted by Salt Engineer:

So I do really nerdy stuff for work. Offensive research & development mostly, and along with those skillsets comes a desire to dig into technical things. Trolls have popped up claiming that ALife doesn't exist, has never existed, or whatever.

While having my morning coffee I decided to do research into ALife.

First, I did some static analysis. As soon as you filter strings for ALife, there's a litany of them. Some to states:

Originally posted by ALife Action Types ENUMs:

EALifeGroupPriorityType
EALifeGroupPriorityType::Default
EALifeGroupPriorityType::Global
EALifeGroupPriorityType::Local
EALifeGroupPriorityType::Emission
EALifeGroupPriorityType::Quest
EALifeGroupPriorityType::Directed
EALifeGroupPriorityType::Count
ESpawnStype::ALifeGroup

Originally posted by Interesting variables:

bALifeTick
UnkillableByALife

Others appearing to reference the class and function calls

ALife
ALifeStartSimulation

Still more referencing things like points of interest:

UALifePOISubsystem

So let's follow "ALifeStartSimulation"... sub_14254aed0. Cool.

Originally posted by label_14254afab / ALifeStartSimulation:

r8_2 = sub_142a14170)&var_78, u"Child doesn't exist", r8);
wchar16* const rcx_7 = var_78;

Firing up a debugger (and this is a huge pain on Linux), I set a breakpoint at this code specifically, because the moment we attempt to start the simulation, it will freeze and kick me over to it. Think of the breakpoint like a pause button and bookmark all in one.

Sure enough, after hitting continue, the map starts loading the game hits the paused state, and the debugger switches to the highlighted code above.



Listen, I understand there are going to be people that are unhappy for whatever reason, whether their machine is seeing performance issues, or it just isn't what they expected.

Saying that ALife doesn't exist or isn't integrated into the game is a flat out lie, and you'll notice that every single time it's brought up, it's done so by a person with a litany of negative things to say before ALife - and if you let them talk long enough to get to that point - they will still have failed to provide a single shred of proof to back any of their claims.

Their lack of owning the game is gamepass. Their wanting to like it is in direct contrast to bashing it before it launched or hit the review embargo.

It's too convenient.

So here you go. Evidence that ALife is in, functioning - even if buggy - and that the people claiming otherwise are full of it. Now that you've seen proof they're full of it, take the rest of their claims with the grain of salt it deserves.

A named function basically means nothing if the functionality isn't in.

I could write a lazy randomised AI spawner function right now named A-LIFE that spawns enemies in Unreal Engine close to the actor location of the player. Which feels like 100-200m when I last played it before refunding.

It still wouldn't actually be a simulation system like the ones we used to have in the older game. I could name a simple AI the same thing of a grand system I have planned that doesn't exist yet and it's just as meaningless.


Unless you can prove functionality exists for tracking ai outside of the player's presumed significancenmanager and it just isn't finished and thus not in use, this is sort of useless. I'm a little surprised you're knowledgeable to debug this but not aware of this fact.

[Guybrush Threepwood]

Originally posted by Salt Engineer:

Originally posted by 76561198116234713:

OP, as a lawyer I deem this proof more susceptible in court, unlike a bunch of notepad text.

You are wrong again.

Dont worry, you will get us sometime.

Mr. Lawyer, Software Developer, wait, Artist Crap Drinking "Schwarzenego" LaWyEr, sir. Mother of god your official title is off the chain.

Your gif doesn't disprove anything I wrote.

Originally posted by 76561198116234713:

People are in denial, they wanna love the game so much.

There is no reason trying to convince them otherwise.

Life-simulating system “A-life 2.0” that makes the game world feel alive as never before

Advanced artificial intelligence systems that will keep engaged even the most hard-boiled players

Clearly they were afraid of people calling themselves lawyers, and suing while drinking cat defecated coffee, so the "A-life" reference that nobody but original fans could define was replaced with more universal language.

Also, FWIW, I'm sorry you had to remove all your racist references in your pre-private profile that didn't list anything to do with the game. It's very unfair, and I hope you're able to sue Valve and the people who reported you. K, thx bai.

Hahahahahahah.

Its so funny that when you dont have any points to make you resort to personal attacks.

Second time in 24 hours man.

And the racist thing you implied was just wrote by you, as it was by me, are we both racists now?

Your lack of logic and need to resort to lies gave me a good and honest chuckle.

Thank you for that!

I think i got into your mind ;)

[Preacher]

Originally posted by Salt Engineer:

Originally posted by Preacher:

It clearly doesn't work from the litany of player experiences we have lol. Just because some guy found some text called "Alife" in notepad doesn't mean it's actually the a-life of the stalker trilogy. Gee whiz, you guys are gullible.

"I'm not gonna believe my eyes that the AI is bad because some script digger on the forums said its not! It has great AI!!!!!!!!!"

"Scriptdigger found something that does something different than I expect, so they're clueless,"

Clearly this is correct as what they keep yapping about in the forums directly contradicts everything everyone is experiencing.

Anyway, keep resorting to strawman :)

[Mundgodt]

But.. It clearly isnt active in the game dude. Even the developers have said so themselves. Itll be fixed asap they say.. People arent lying dude

[ecoone]

Originally posted by Salt Engineer:

Originally posted by Gian800:

doesn't take debugging to notice how groups of enemies spawn out of thin air in an area around the player, it happened at least a dozen time in the 8 hours I played
You can clear any of the military bases and wait there long enough(maybe 10 minutes) for another random spawn to trigger and place a group where you know no enemies were present
That's not an npc spawning with a goal and heading to a set position to complete it, that's just spawning npcs around the player to make the game seem more alive than it actually is, like many many games do already

Let me simplify your statement:

You saw something that didn't appeared to be bugged and not working as you expected...
so "there's nothing there at all."

Absolutely no leaps there. Obviously vaporware. /s

Originally posted by atrox:

Just seeing that some function calls are there means nothing.

You don't know what they do, they could do different things than named, may have been cut down for release or even dummies/placeholders.

So please stop concluding those things from a debugger.

Let's look at the opposite perspective for a moment.

1. "I think"
   
2. "I feel"
   
3. ???
   
4. "It absolutely doesn't exist"

Zero debugger, testing, or evidence gathering involved in the speculation presented as fact.

Maybe stop making factual claims without facts?

You dont do facts!!! Stating a function call doesent show ♥♥♥♥!!! Heck i could code you a tetris with a few function calls A_Life20() and i assure you...there would be no A-Life

[Salt Engineer]

Originally posted by Mambius:

Bro there are still NFT or Crypto files in the game and it wont be featured... so basically these files mean nothing

Only NFT strings here are \rnFT, =gnfTtA=glgT, and nfTb9 - none of which appear to be related to an actual NFT. No references to Ethereum, Polygon (the chain, not a shape/face), Solana, Binance, or Flow (outside of references to water and optical flow).

Not to pull the meme, but do you have a source? Having plans for it in 2021, and actually implementing it are two different things.

It sounds like your rebuttal of ALife implementation is you heard a clickbait influencer say a thing about a reddit thread about some other influencer...

[GodMan]

even if it exists its clearly broken AF

[Matt]

That is absolutely genius.
Are you an indian SW engineer by any chance?

Because as somebody who does reverse engineering, this is embarrassingly superficial. Let me break down why:

You fired up IDA, looked at the RTTI table, found some enums and function names, and placed a single breakpoint. That's literally reverse engineering 101. Finding string references and type definitions doesn't prove functionality - it just proves the code exists in some form. This is like finding a car's steering wheel and claiming the entire engine works perfectly.

Nobody disagrees that A-Life wasn't INTENDED to be in the game (Just like the game wasn't intended to have higher specs). But where's your actual analysis of:

- Faction behavior systems
- Dynamic event generation
- NPC decision making
- Any actual A-Life functionality
Instead, you've provided:

- Some string searches
- Basic enum definitions
- A breakpoint hit
- And somehow concluded everything works?

The internal references could be named whatever the hell they thought they were implementing and probably left it unfinished and broken. Finding function names in code is not the same as proving they work as advertised.


Next time, try analyzing what the system actually DOES instead of posting a bunch of useless references and pretending it's deep technical analysis.

Absolute amateur.

[Salt Engineer]

Originally posted by Mundgodt:

But.. It clearly isnt active in the game dude. Even the developers have said so themselves. Itll be fixed asap they say.. People arent lying dude

In the game and bugged is very different from "doesn't exist."

[p00se2]

A-Li(f)e

[Salt Engineer]

Originally posted by GodMan:

even if it exists its clearly broken AF

That can be true at the exact same time.

[nZ RaifalM3n]

The guy knows what he is doing from what i m reading. Give them a break, there is A-Life 2.0, even they confirmed its buggy. Relax and stop acting like kids.

[ecoone]

Originally posted by Matt:

That is absolutely genius.
Are you an indian SW engineer by any chance?

Because as somebody who does reverse engineering, this is embarrassingly superficial. Let me break down why:

You fired up IDA, looked at the RTTI table, found some enums and function names, and placed a single breakpoint. That's literally reverse engineering 101. Finding string references and type definitions doesn't prove functionality - it just proves the code exists in some form. This is like finding a car's steering wheel and claiming the entire engine works perfectly.

Nobody disagrees that A-Life wasn't INTENDED to be in the game (Just like the game wasn't intended to have higher specs). But where's your actual analysis of:

- Faction behavior systems
- Dynamic event generation
- NPC decision making
- Any actual A-Life functionality
Instead, you've provided:

- Some string searches
- Basic enum definitions
- A breakpoint hit
- And somehow concluded everything works?

The internal references could be named whatever the hell they thought they were implementing and probably left it unfinished and broken. Finding function names in code is not the same as proving they work as advertised.


Next time, try analyzing what the system actually DOES instead of posting a bunch of useless references and pretending it's deep technical analysis.

This, exactly this. And i would go a step further and claim that guy has no whatsoever experience in debugging or actual coding. A 1000 line powershell script would overwhelm him.

[Matt]

Originally posted by nZ RaifalM3n:

The guy knows what he is doing from what i m reading. Give them a break, there is A-Life 2.0, even they confirmed its buggy. Relax and stop acting like kids.

"The guy knows what he is doing" - yeah, he knows how to use a string search function and place a breakpoint. Real cutting-edge stuff there, chief.


And what exactly did he prove? That there are some function names with "ALife" in them? Wow, revolutionary. Next you'll tell me finding "multiplayer" in the code means the game has perfect netcode.


"Even they confirmed it's buggy" - Oh, so now we're supposed to give them a break because they admitted shipping broken features? That's like a restaurant serving you raw chicken and saying "yeah we know it's not quite cooked, give us a break."


The only ones "acting like kids" here are the people defending unfinished features by pointing at function names and going "look, it exists!" Some of us actually expect working features when we pay full price for a game.