The mod "Roadside Panic" (very good mod btw) shows that there is no "persistent" world

[Duster]

I recommend anyone interested in the merits of whether "a-life 2.0" is anything more than a bubble spawner, to check out the Roadside Panic mod on Nexus. While the modder ends up defending the devs, it's clear from his work on the files (and he basically admits it himself) there there is no simulation of the zone life outside your spawn bubble.

Every NPC you meet outside of the hard coded ones exists only while in the spawn bubble. They have no past and no future - once they exit your bubble they are gone for good. There is no simulation of them outside the bubble. Really, there is no persistent world. There are no actual stories besides your own, and in fact, no way to influence the world in any meaningful sandbox way.

In -life 1.0, because NPCs existed outside your spawn bubble, and interacted, you could meaningfully change the zone. Factions would take over different areas, and of course, you could therefore influence that - if you killed a lot of a certain faction in an area, it influenced the simulation.

In Stalker 2, you simply experience a series of random events every time the spawn ai triggers. It's totally different. One is a primitive simulation of a world, and what we have now is just unalterable randomness that can only, at best, let you pretend there is something more going on "behind the curtain."

Anyway, I invited anyone to go to that mod, look at what the modder says, play the mod, and you will see: a-life 2.0 is just random encounters in a bubble.

[Tadashir]

So beyond the existential crisis OP is experiencing there is a huge huge problem with this. This is why you walk up to some buildings and no one is around. You looks left, nothing... look right.. nothing. Suddenly four guys are seven feet from your left,five guys to your right and 11 dogs... cuz... why not a whole freakin pack every single freakin time. They're spawning on some weird timer on your location instead of just being there already so you can fight them normally. Sometimes this happens sometimes it doesn't. That's the fun.. you never know what to expect and nothing will make sense. Save one bullet for yourself.

[Bad Distraction Carnifex]

I use it but I've modified some of the settings for a personal pak file filled with goodies. It's not bad and AFAIK they're right. There's no offline component which is exactly why the devs have been quiet because their fixes won't address the elephant in the room; that offline doesn't exist.

Modders will have to do it. I hope that the devs can release some form of modding tools to speed up the process even if it's unofficial and maybe if they figure the mod is good they can contact the maker and find a deal in incorporate the work as a baseline patch in the future or as a free DLC for platforms that can handle the performance cost.

[strangerism]

too early to tell, since most mods atm are only changing ini files and parameters within. Calling them mods is a stretch. We will see, the game just came out the door and that it's a milestone alone

[Bad Distraction Carnifex]

Originally posted by Tadashir:

So beyond the existential crisis OP is experiencing there is a huge huge problem with this. This is why you walk up to some buildings and no one is around. You looks left, nothing... look right.. nothing. Suddenly four guys are seven feet from your left,five guys to your right and 11 dogs... cuz... why not a whole freakin pack every single freakin time. They're spawning on some weird timer on your location instead of just being there already so you can fight them normally. Sometimes this happens sometimes it doesn't. That's the fun.. you never know what to expect and nothing will make sense. Save one bullet for yourself.

The only solution is to use a mod like this, crank the spawn distance to epic proportions, leave their minimum spawn alone and increase the spawn instances to maximum or close to maximum, performance be damned.

The sheer radius size will prevent the overwhelming nature of everything spawning too close to you and you could adjust the instances if it's ever too intense. Performance be damned.

Hmmm I might try this actually...It's not hard to edit these config files and make a pak.

[Greyfire]

seriously - how many people are going to come here and make the same exact post...

[Panther]

Pretty good read
- https://www.nexusmods.com/stalker2heartofchornobyl/mods/210

Is "A-Life" Real? Did the developers lie to us?
*sigh*. This discussion is stupid because a-life has always been a smoke-and-mirrors marketing term for a complex npc control system, together with the dangling bells and whistles of intersecting mechanics.

A-Life does not exist in Stalker,2 in the sense that the system operates so vastly different that trying to use the old A-Life as a mental benchmark is pointless.
There is no A-Life in Stalker 2, there is only A-Life 2.0. But even this brings confusing associations with the old system, so I just call the system the AI Director. Or Her. She is the Ariadne whose thread weaves the path of those who walk the maze of the Zone; she is the seamstress of the Fates themselves, maybe she is the Zone herself, for she too is bequeathed with treacherous mysteries in equal part sublime and confusing; and she is also whatever other ridiculously ornate and purple figurative you can conjure to string together ideas of feminine mystery and grace and destiny and strings and divinity, simply so you can avoid the exhaustive and mundane topic of attempting to the incensed layman why this new encounter system is not a downgrade and why there would be no reason to pine for alife 1.0 - if only she worked as intended.

This new AI Director is not by any means is watered down. In fact, the reason she is such a mess is that the ai system is in fact too ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ convoluted.
But rest assured, the Director can do all the things you expect out of Stalker. She is able to schedule faction conflicts and turf wars, and create the kind of gunfights in the old stalker games, the ones you hear in the distance and hope to avoid walking into.

[Professor Smooth]

Originally posted by Bad Distraction Carnifex:

Originally posted by Tadashir:

So beyond the existential crisis OP is experiencing there is a huge huge problem with this. This is why you walk up to some buildings and no one is around. You looks left, nothing... look right.. nothing. Suddenly four guys are seven feet from your left,five guys to your right and 11 dogs... cuz... why not a whole freakin pack every single freakin time. They're spawning on some weird timer on your location instead of just being there already so you can fight them normally. Sometimes this happens sometimes it doesn't. That's the fun.. you never know what to expect and nothing will make sense. Save one bullet for yourself.

The only solution is to use a mod like this, crank the spawn distance to epic proportions, leave their minimum spawn alone and increase the spawn instances to maximum or close to maximum, performance be damned.

The sheer radius size will prevent the overwhelming nature of everything spawning too close to you and you could adjust the instances if it's ever too intense. Performance be damned.

Hmmm I might try this actually...It's not hard to edit these config files and make a pak.

The problem that comes with this mod is that the game is not built to handle it. Essential NPCs, like traders and story characters wont spawn until you reload the save.

There are a lot of design decisions that foretell that there is no offline A-Life. From lacking binoculars, to actual scripted events playing when youre exploring to fake a semblance of A-life.

We wont have a true 2.0 A-life in the near future, if ever.

[Duster]

Originally posted by Greyfire:

seriously - how many people are going to come here and make the same exact post...

Honestly, probably until the post gaslighting us, saying that there is a persistent world outside the bubble, stop.

that's why I posted this. It's maddening to see this level of denial. Sure, I get it. Ukraine got invaded and I can understand how that can affect the development of the game.

What I dont like is being lied to, ad gaslighted. The removal of mention of A-Life 2.0 was an obvious bait and switch, and the fact that the devs havn't owned up to it is bad, war be damned. And then the denial, like I said, is just ridiculous

[Draconus]

Originally posted by Duster:

I recommend anyone interested in the merits of whether "a-life 2.0" is anything more than a bubble spawner, to check out the Roadside Panic mod on Nexus. While the modder ends up defending the devs, it's clear from his work on the files (and he basically admits it himself) there there is no simulation of the zone life outside your spawn bubble.

Every NPC you meet outside of the hard coded ones exists only while in the spawn bubble. They have no past and no future - once they exit your bubble they are gone for good. There is no simulation of them outside the bubble. Really, there is no persistent world. There are no actual stories besides your own, and in fact, no way to influence the world in any meaningful sandbox way.

In -life 1.0, because NPCs existed outside your spawn bubble, and interacted, you could meaningfully change the zone. Factions would take over different areas, and of course, you could therefore influence that - if you killed a lot of a certain faction in an area, it influenced the simulation.

In Stalker 2, you simply experience a series of random events every time the spawn ai triggers. It's totally different. One is a primitive simulation of a world, and what we have now is just unalterable randomness that can only, at best, let you pretend there is something more going on "behind the curtain."

Anyway, I invited anyone to go to that mod, look at what the modder says, play the mod, and you will see: a-life 2.0 is just random encounters in a bubble.

i have to laugh when people keep talking about this A life 2.0 system they have absolutely no idea how UE5 engine even works and what can and cant be done....its not being spawned outside of your bubble nonsense... UE5 works on rendering only a certain distance from player and there is max limit on this which is the Rendering Distance... u cant have characters stuff going on real time on one side of the map while your on the other its not how UE5 works .....

On the orginal stalker game the fire fights ect in distance is simulated with sounds then as u walk towards it the engine loads the characters in, enemies ect its just so far away this happens player never notices it the simulation effect is achieved and this so called A life system people keep going on about ....

even on the Xray engine the entire world was never rendered at once with everyone, everything ,creatures u name it.... its always within a certain draw distance to player ......people should understand how games work before complaining about stuff that is impossible to actually do and have it run properly why u cant have everything in world rendered at once ...my input on this matter anyways u guys can go on for weeks months the devs will do a update itl be as good as they can do and people will still complaining not fully understanding how video games function under the hood

[RzR⁧⁧Telhalm]

Originally posted by Greyfire:

seriously - how many people are going to come here and make the same exact post...

Not enough.
People would rather complain and rush a product instead of wait and play something else in the mean time.

Kinda funny, huh?

[Duster]

Originally posted by Draconus:

i have to laugh when people keep talking about this A life 2.0 system they have absolutely no idea how UE5 engine even works and what can and cant be done....its not being spawned outside of your bubble nonsense UE5 works on rendering only a certain distance from player with is the render distance... u cant have characters stuff going on real time on one side of the map while your on the other its not how UE5 works .....

On the orginal stalker game the fire fights ect in distance is simulated with sounds then as u walk towards it the engine loads the characters in enemies ect its just so far away this happens player never notices it the simulation effect is achieved ....

even on the Xray engine the entire world was never rendered at once with everyone, everything ,creatures u name it.... its always within a certain draw distance to player ......people should understand how games work before complaining about stuff that is impossible to actually do and have it run properly why u cant have everything in world rendered at once ...my input on this matter anyways u guys can go on for weeks months the devs will do a update itl be as good as they can do and people will still complaining not fully understanding how video games function under the hood

No one is saying that a-life 1.0 had the whole world spawned all the time.

However, in A-Life 1.0, even when NPCs WEREN'T spawned in the graphics engine, they "persisted" outside your bubble, interacting with the world in a limited way. You could meet them at different times as they traveled.

This distinction is not hard to understand, so it's really mystifying to me to see so many people obfuscating the very simple issue: that "a-life 2.0" is nothing like A-life 1.0, and has no simulation, no persistence.

There is no world in any meaningful sense. No future, no past. Just a random, hollow simulacrum of the persistent world that was a-lfe 1.0

[Kain]

"While the modder ends up defending the devs, it's clear from his work on the files (and he basically admits it himself) there there is no simulation of the zone life outside your spawn bubble."

Yeah, I rather trust the devs than some random modder.

[Draconus]

Originally posted by RzRTelhalm:

Originally posted by Greyfire:

seriously - how many people are going to come here and make the same exact post...

Not enough.
People would rather complain and rush a product instead of wait and play something else in the mean time.

Kinda funny, huh?

why dont u read what i just posted above how the a life system actually works and what can and cant be done in UE5...people need to friggin chill over this A life thing its simulated with sounds ect then as u get closer the engine will draw the characters and enemies in fighting each other...same goers with people doing there thing there not really there when your half mile away it simulated not real time which real time is impossible on any game engine u cant have entire world rendered at once with everything in it it wouldnt run period on any damn system...blows my mind the complaining and most people dont understand how games actually work under the hood

[RzR⁧⁧Telhalm]

Originally posted by Draconus:

why dont u read what i just posted above how the a life system actually works and what can and cant be done in UE5...people need to friggin chill over this A life thing its simulated with sounds ect then as u get closer the engine will draw the characters and enemies in fighting each other...same goers with people doing there thing there not really there when your half mile away it simulated not real time which real time is impossible on any game engine u cant have entire world rendered at once with everything in it it wouldnt run period on any damn system...blows my mind the complaining and most people dont understand how games actually work under the hood

Dunno why you're coming at me like this when I'm not even responding to you. I'm not one to complain about this "A-Life" gimmick like most others here, especially as someone who is new to the STALKER series at all.

I mean you're right about the entire world not being able to be simulated in the way you think, but that's not even relevant to me.

[Draconus]

Originally posted by Duster:

Originally posted by Draconus:

i have to laugh when people keep talking about this A life 2.0 system they have absolutely no idea how UE5 engine even works and what can and cant be done....its not being spawned outside of your bubble nonsense UE5 works on rendering only a certain distance from player with is the render distance... u cant have characters stuff going on real time on one side of the map while your on the other its not how UE5 works .....

On the orginal stalker game the fire fights ect in distance is simulated with sounds then as u walk towards it the engine loads the characters in enemies ect its just so far away this happens player never notices it the simulation effect is achieved ....

even on the Xray engine the entire world was never rendered at once with everyone, everything ,creatures u name it.... its always within a certain draw distance to player ......people should understand how games work before complaining about stuff that is impossible to actually do and have it run properly why u cant have everything in world rendered at once ...my input on this matter anyways u guys can go on for weeks months the devs will do a update itl be as good as they can do and people will still complaining not fully understanding how video games function under the hood

No one is saying that a-life 1.0 had the whole world spawned all the time.

However, in A-Life 1.0, even when NPCs WEREN'T spawned in the graphics engine, they "persisted" outside your bubble, interacting with the world in a limited way. You could meet them at different times as they traveled.

This distinction is not hard to understand, so it's really mystifying to me to see so many people obfuscating the very simple issue: that "a-life 2.0" is nothing like A-life 1.0, and has no simulation, no persistence.

There is no world in any meaningful sense. No future, no past. Just a random, hollow simulacrum of the persistent world that was a-lfe 1.0

again like i said there is no bubble that u sit in ...they simply simulate stuff outside of render draw distance then when u get there its happening its not actually being rendered only what is within player draw distance...people can complain about A life 2.0 all they want knowing UE5 a bit i already know what the devs can and cant do people will have to either except it or move on as life goes on lol idont mind the game as it is minus some of the bugs ive had