Is enemy AI broken?

[Jimsatsu]

This is a genuine question because I'm quite puzzled at how the AI performs in firefights, I've played the previous Stalker entries and there the AI is way more manageable for me then on this game.

The main issues I have with the AI is that they seem to have pinpoint accuracy no matter the distance making every firefight a downhill battle and I find myself eating through medical supplies at a rapid pace per encounter. I started on veteran but I had to gradually lower the difficulty because I kept getting sniped over greater distances. Sadly, this issue still persists even on Rookie difficulty. It's quite annoying and frustrating since the enemy also never flinches so they can continuously keep the pressure on. Using cover is also not viable since I often still find myself getting shot if even the tip of my head is still visible to them going prone was never an option so I've deemed cover behind objects to be completely useless unless it covers your whole entire body.

The second issue is stealth, enemies have been capable of spotting me through walls more often then not and seem to be able to perfectly still spot you over great distances in complete darkness, crouched and with the flashlight off leaving "stealth" a completely useless mechanic that I quickly abandoned after finding out it more often than not screws me over.

I'm genuinely lost as to why the enemy behaves like this even on rookie difficulty and was wondering if it maybe is intentional or a flaw in the game?

[Dumar]

Yes - I think everyone aggrees human A.I. are broken.

There's not much you can do.

If you don't have cover, best to run from random spawned groups.

If you are feeling brave, QUICK-SAVE immediately before combat ensues, and toss 1-2 grenades; if you are good, they will either kill or knock'em down, and you can rush-in, and head-shot or stab anyone who survived.

This is the way -

Something about the latest 3 patches, human-a.i. are less dumb, hyper aware, hyper aggressive once combat initiates.

AK's/SMGs/Buckshot hit and slow you over mega distances; Human A.I. chase and seemingly shoot over mega distances with no issues. These guys are well out of sniper-range from any gun we can equip to retaliate.

Sniping in this game is a no-go. You get hit after killing your first target, and will get demolished from hit-stun/lock on from other mobs.

It's REALLY bad an starts at the very beginning prologue and only gets worse.

Again, strat for groups is, toss grenades to initialize forced encounters, otherwise run or reload game try your grenade toss initiations again.

Folks here seem to want A- Life 2.0 and other stuff fixed immediately, but IMO, human A.I. and all of their super-powers needs to take biggest priority over anything, even bugged side-quests/main-quests glitches.

[Serpiko82]

Yes, the TLDR is that stealth is inconsistent and AI is indeed overly accurate.

[Othobrithol]

If you search, there are a lot of threads where you will find people agreeing and other people (like me) disagreeing and then being called fanboi or shill.

There is no doubt the game is brutal compared to most shooters, and does have some issues, but other than places you are currently locked out of, the bots don't just automatically know where you are.

Part of it is that there are a number of places where it is scripted that hostile NPCs actively looking for you. Part of it is because the current range at which NPCs spawn is still too close (was worse at launch). Part of it is that the AI likes smgs and shotguns so if it is you vs 4 bandits, the area around you is full of lead.

But the biggest part is that at first you are super weak. Your armor sucks, you don't have artifact damage resistance, your guns suck and you don't have all the silencers, scopes and clips to engage quietly and at a distance. That spray of lead is lethal.

Here's a good video that shows what the current stealth mechanics are:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vGtq8hQDpMU&ab_channel=ZoneSlug

[Yeltnerb]

Ally A.I is broken at times. Sometimes they are ignored by your enemies and do not attack.

[Dumar]

Originally posted by Yeltnerb:

Ally A.I is broken at times. Sometimes they are ignored by your enemies and do not attack.

This is true...

Sometimes, Ally A.I will walk right past gun-fights with bandits or monolith fights, not help you and just stroll along in between fire fights as if they are in the shining-zone suffering from delusions.

[Jimsatsu]

Originally posted by Dumar:

Yes - I think everyone aggrees human A.I. are broken.

There's not much you can do.

If you don't have cover, best to run from random spawned groups.

If you are feeling brave, QUICK-SAVE immediately before combat ensues, and toss 1-2 grenades; if you are good, they will either kill or knock'em down, and you can rush-in, and head-shot or stab anyone who survived.

This is the way -

Something about the latest 3 patches, human-a.i. are less dumb, hyper aware, hyper aggressive once combat initiates.

AK's/SMGs/Buckshot hit and slow you over mega distances; Human A.I. chase and seemingly shoot over mega distances with no issues. These guys are well out of sniper-range from any gun we can equip to retaliate.

Sniping in this game is a no-go. You get hit after killing your first target, and will get demolished from hit-stun/lock on from other mobs.

It's REALLY bad an starts at the very beginning prologue and only gets worse.

Again, strat for groups is, toss grenades to initialize forced encounters, otherwise run or reload game try your grenade toss initiations again.

Folks here seem to want A- Life 2.0 and other stuff fixed immediately, but IMO, human A.I. and all of their super-powers needs to take biggest priority over anything, even bugged side-quests/main-quests glitches.

Thank you for your answer! I just started playing yesterday and I kept getting absolutely demolished by these issues. I'll try to apply the tactic you told me about and hope that eventually after all the major bugs have been patched out they'll fix the AI too

[Dumar]

Originally posted by Jimsatsu:

Originally posted by Dumar:

Yes - I think everyone aggrees human A.I. are broken.

There's not much you can do.

If you don't have cover, best to run from random spawned groups.

If you are feeling brave, QUICK-SAVE immediately before combat ensues, and toss 1-2 grenades; if you are good, they will either kill or knock'em down, and you can rush-in, and head-shot or stab anyone who survived.

This is the way -

Something about the latest 3 patches, human-a.i. are less dumb, hyper aware, hyper aggressive once combat initiates.

AK's/SMGs/Buckshot hit and slow you over mega distances; Human A.I. chase and seemingly shoot over mega distances with no issues. These guys are well out of sniper-range from any gun we can equip to retaliate.

Sniping in this game is a no-go. You get hit after killing your first target, and will get demolished from hit-stun/lock on from other mobs.

It's REALLY bad an starts at the very beginning prologue and only gets worse.

Again, strat for groups is, toss grenades to initialize forced encounters, otherwise run or reload game try your grenade toss initiations again.

Folks here seem to want A- Life 2.0 and other stuff fixed immediately, but IMO, human A.I. and all of their super-powers needs to take biggest priority over anything, even bugged side-quests/main-quests glitches.

Thank you for your answer! I just started playing yesterday and I kept getting absolutely demolished by these issues. I'll try to apply the tactic you told me about and hope that eventually after all the major bugs have been patched out they'll fix the AI too

EDIT:
I will also suggest, (not sure where you are in the game,) but AK's are pretty bad beginning to mid game.

Weapons have really 'bad' balance. Snipers IMO are all useless in the current state of the game. This also means, i'd never put a 'scope' on anything.

This game currently needs to be played like DOOM 1/ DOOM 2 of 1993.

AKU /AKU S / GP37 etc are pretty bad/terrible; terrible recoil, terrible accuracy, terrible dmg even when fully upgraded.

You will want the Buket-S2 SMG early to mid-game to quickly dispatch enemies/bandit groups with lesser armor/ minor helms.

Mid to Late game, you will want to seek out DNIPRO or a Kharod. (I personally prefer the DNIPRO, but recoil is better on Kharod.)

Other than Skif's pistol early game, the only weapons worth using are:

Buket S2 (Early to mid game.)
DNIPRO/ Kharod (mid to late/end game.)

Goodluck in the zone, Stalker.

We can love and hate this game at the same time

[pillowcase]

Yea the A-Life fix was helpful but it did not do much for stealth or behavior of enemy AI to detect you through grass or other objects. I put the game down for now until some more of these fixes come in. Seems the more I play the more I’m finding I would be better off waiting for these fixes. I am playing shadow of Chernobyl now after modding it to make it look better and I am not running into the same enemy AI issues as Stalker 2.

[Jimsatsu]

Originally posted by Othobrithol:

If you search, there are a lot of threads where you will find people agreeing and other people (like me) disagreeing and then being called fanboi or shill.

There is no doubt the game is brutal compared to most shooters, and does have some issues, but other than places you are currently locked out of, the bots don't just automatically know where you are.

Part of it is that there are a number of places where it is scripted that hostile NPCs actively looking for you. Part of it is because the current range at which NPCs spawn is still too close (was worse at launch). Part of it is that the AI likes smgs and shotguns so if it is you vs 4 bandits, the area around you is full of lead.

But the biggest part is that at first you are super weak. Your armor sucks, you don't have artifact damage resistance, your guns suck and you don't have all the silencers, scopes and clips to engage quietly and at a distance. That spray of lead is lethal.

Here's a good video that shows what the current stealth mechanics are:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vGtq8hQDpMU&ab_channel=ZoneSlug

I personally don't mind the brutality, I've read about grenade spamming which imo is not an issue since I like playing tactical shooters and that is the to go to strat. However I personally find that this brutality should be scaled to the difficulty you want to play on, I started on veteran which was too much for me so I lowered it. However I don't think that Rookie difficulty warrants enemy pinpoint accuracy and being able to get spotted over great distances before I even see the enemy.

I also get the scripted search parts which is fine but I have several clips of the "search" being an instant find through walls to the point where they pre-fire/frag my location without having any visual. Now the part where starting out weak makes sense since I don't expect nor want the game just to hand me win after win without effort but the AI clearly has an advantage over the player even on the lowest difficulty which makes my experience sadly frustrating.

Thank you for your answer and link attached, I'll give it a watch to get more knowledge!

[Jimsatsu]

Originally posted by pillowcase:

Yea the A-Life fix was helpful but it did not do much for stealth or behavior of enemy AI to detect you through grass or other objects. I put the game down for now until some more of these fixes come in. Seems the more I play the more I’m finding I would be better off waiting for these fixes. I am playing shadow of Chernobyl now after modding it to make it look better and I am not running into the same enemy AI issues as Stalker 2.

Fair enough, I've been playing Call of Pripyat myself with a friend (modded) for a bit now but wanted to give this game a shot. I guess I'll just have to wait for a better balancing in terms of AI. Thanks for answering!

[pillowcase]

Originally posted by Jimsatsu:

Originally posted by pillowcase:

Yea the A-Life fix was helpful but it did not do much for stealth or behavior of enemy AI to detect you through grass or other objects. I put the game down for now until some more of these fixes come in. Seems the more I play the more I’m finding I would be better off waiting for these fixes. I am playing shadow of Chernobyl now after modding it to make it look better and I am not running into the same enemy AI issues as Stalker 2.

Fair enough, I've been playing Call of Pripyat myself with a friend (modded) for a bit now but wanted to give this game a shot. I guess I'll just have to wait for a better balancing in terms of AI. Thanks for answering!

I’m about to leave the Lesser Zone and that is where I stopped. Just exploring around I noticed enemies would detect me immediately even if I tried to hide behind stuff. It just got on my nerves because I would rather be playing this game but it is what it is at this point.

Groups of soldiers, you are better off running full speed at them with Skif’s pistol or an equivalent weapon and just taking them head on rather than finding cover and trying to shoot from it. That or like the other user mentioned try to toss a grenade to thin them out first if they don’t immediately detect you as soon as you throw it.

[The Real Fragamemnon]

100Gb patch did not fix this. So what did it fix?

[eddie]

Just install this mods and you ll be fine (mainly that 1st):

https://www.nexusmods.com/stalker2heartofchornobyl/mods/113?tab=description

https://www.nexusmods.com/stalker2heartofchornobyl/mods/242

[Othobrithol]

Originally posted by Jimsatsu:

Originally posted by Othobrithol:

I personally don't mind the brutality, I've read about grenade spamming which imo is not an issue since I like playing tactical shooters and that is the to go to strat. However I personally find that this brutality should be scaled to the difficulty you want to play on, I started on veteran which was too much for me so I lowered it.

I thinks it's a combination of the dev's being influenced by tactical shooters, but more so them reacting to the realities of their war. There would have been no lack of people in their lives with combat experience hence you get stuff that people hate like soft cover not really meaning anything against rifle fire or the AI being able to nail somebody standing in the middle of the road. But to balance all that we get to plink heads. If the AI was nailing headshots like the player does, it'd be a rough game.

I do hate the grenade spam too, though. But I also just tossed a grenade into a room full of hostile special forces chilling in the next room of the shelter during an emission. Fair is Fair.

[void_dance]

I'm thankful to find this thread. I just made it to Slag Heap and every side mission I try to do leads me to open-air gunfights with overwhelming odds. I keep trying to disengage and flank but it feels hopeless. Killing the lucky kingpin, recovering the lost shipment...anything where I'm facing numbers in the open field feels impossible without just throwing grenades and running in spamming heals and shotgun slugs. The game is so immersive until those moments.

The devs have been working so hard, I assume a fix is incoming.