Stalker 2 devs insist complex AI simulation of enemy patrols is in the game - it's just broken

The enemies of survival shooter Stalker 2 have a funny habit of showing up right behind you, like a panto villain with an AK-47. Far from being a premeditated ambush by intelligent AI-controlled soldiers, this is just a result of the game's janky spawns. Those botched encounters are unlike previous games, where roaming bands of factional murderfolk would patrol the radioactive wastes, seemingly according to their own whims. Back in the day, this wandering baddies feature was dubbed "A-life" by developers GSC Game World - basically a jargon word for the simulation of enemies that would lead to "emergent" moments of violence and conflict. It was promised as a feature in Stalker 2 but many players have noticed it seems to be absent. Over the weekend, GSC insisted the simulation is technically present in the sequel. It's just broken.

"Often, the game world exists only in the player's field of view," say the developers when asked to define the feature in an official FAQ. "A-Life 2.0 is a simulation system for life in the Zone. Factions and mutants are fighting for living space, migrating, capturing new places, or retreating to safer areas. A-Life is what makes Zone truly alive and unpredictable."

If that is currently present in Stalker 2, it's hard to tell. Right now, it seems enemies spawn in a simple radius around the player, for example, and you'll sometimes even see them pop into the world. If you don't see the enemy themselves as they appear, you will see the white sight marker that abruptly shows you've been instantly spotted by the bad guy who has materialised somewhere behind you. It's not the most intelligent spawning system, but I guess it does keep you on your toes. It also doesn't apply to every kind of enemy encounter - some are scripted, while other bandits and soldiers are tied to particular locations, making those run-ins appear more naturalistic.

Enemies do fight one another when they come into contact as well, but this more often happens after a group of bandidos or pack of blind dogs blinks into existence near an enemy camp simply because you're there. I have come across roaming groups of Stalkers, but again their appearance is sudden, and they're more likely to walk straight into toxic waste and die due to braindead pathing than to get into emergent scrapes with the wildlife. I definitely haven't seen any (non-scripted) instances of factions "capturing new places" or "retreating to safer areas" as the developer's definition suggests.

After some players complained about the A-life system being absent (and pointed out that a mention of the feature was edited out of the Steam page) the developers have responded on Discord and Reddit to say that the system is really there, but that bugs are preventing it from acting as intended.

"There are several known issues with A-life 2.0 system that we are aware of and are working on fixes/improvements," said the studio's community manager on the Stalker Discord (as spotted by PC Gamer). "We know that this system is very important to the Zone having an immersive atmosphere, and we will do our best to fix the known issues."

It doesn't help that "A-life" is (and always has been) a hand-wavey buzzword, even more vaguely defined than Battlefield's "levolution" or Call Of Duty's recent "omnimovement". This leads to confusion and mixed expectations among players about what the feature actually entails. What is also complicating things from a developer perspective, say GSC, is that two different in-game systems are responsible for creating these theoretically organic shootouts. It presumably takes tweaking both to make the world feel inhabited by competing groups who wander around. And for each bug report or complaint they receive, they need to figure out which system is responsible for the unintended behaviour.

"The Combat AI and A-Life 2.0 are different things," one of the developers notes in a reply to a Reddit complaint. "One is actually a 'brain' for combat scenarios, while the other is an overall and more complicated system that is trying to manage life in the Zone."

In the meantime, the first patch for the shooter is coming soon, say GSC, who recently posted details about the fixes they're planning. A lot of these will address crashes, softlocks, balance adjustments, and other high-priority stuff, they say. But at the bottom of the list is "A-Life system bugfixes", which further suggests the studio considers it significant enough to sort out soon.