It is time to take a look at what is new in Patch 1.4. It introduces various improvements and fixes to the game, including some big improvements to the combat AI. Let’s take a look at what changed and uncover what new tricks to expect from your enemies.
Highlights
- Persistent A-Life: stalkers are now living their long, happy lives, unless they meet their end in the Zone as a result of their actions outside the player’s view.
- Mutants can now use corpse-eating animation if there are dead bodies nearby.
- Mutants now have an “alert” state if something is happening near or approaching them.
- Improvements to human combat:
- Fixed numerous bugs and problems with cover usage for NPC. Now they can properly use available covers, always try to hide before shooting, and don’t rush forward when not needed.
- Characters use trees as cover.
- Updated combat and cover animations to look more fluent and fast.
- Improved flanking pathfinding and transition to close combat.
- Close combat has become tougher on Veteran and Stalker difficulties.
- Fixed issues in communication and actions synchronization between characters in the squad.
- Characters now communicate tactical actions and reactions more clearly in combat.
- Human characters throw grenades when they want to flush out the target, not on the cooldown.
- Squads now have a finite number of grenades, depending on their rank and faction (bandits have significantly less than military).
- Human characters are able to attack mutants in melee. They use kick melee attacks against smaller mutants.
- Human characters can kick players who are crouched.
- Human characters look around for a brief moment, searching for enemies after combat ends, then proceed to the post-combat activities like looting and healing wounded.
- Humans are no longer able to snipe with shotguns. Fixed problems with pellet dispersion and non-natural ballistic distances.
- Increased number of generic heads for NPC randomization
- Burer can now use his telekinetic abilities to catch and throw grenades
- Improved Weapon stat displaying in the inventory. Updated weapon stats bars and their calculation logic.
- Added new weapon stat — handling.
AI and Combat
- Fixed erratic behavior of A-Life NPCs after attacking enemy lairs.
- Fixed an issue where A-Life NPC didn’t move after transitioning to offline.
- Improved mutant behavior during combat.
- Fixed an issue where a Flesh mutant was hiding to ambush the Player after they avoided a jump attack.
- Fixed an issue where a swarm of rat mutants were ignoring the Player after loading a save made near them.
- Improved path building for NPCs in offline to avoid them getting in restricted areas.
- Fixed an issue where an NPC was able to stay alive after falling in a wounded state underwater.
- Fixed an issue where mutants’ bodies were jumping/shaking/stretching after being killed by shotgun or grenade.
- Fixed an issue where patrolling NPCs could clip with each other.
- Blind Dogs are now playing peaceful barks when not in combat with Player.
- Fixed issues where NPCs were clipping or going through doors while in combat.
- Fixed an issue where mutants were able to get stuck searching for enemies after escaping combat during emission.
- Fixed an issue when NPCs could be stuck in ambush pose.
- Adjusted aim for the NPCs that are in low cover.
- Fixed an issue when the NPCs could stay idle after receiving critical damage.
- Adjusted shooting range of NPCs depending on their weapon.
- Adjusted shooting from cover for the NPCs.
Balance
- RPM-74: increased armor piercing value
- Explosions now cause more damage on high-ranking targets
- Increased RPG damage
- Decreased lethal distance for grenades
- Increased concussion distance for RPG
- Added some silencers into stashes.
- Added Khors the possibility to upgrade Zircon Suit.
- Fixed an issue where Player was able to install physical protection upgrades twice for PSZ-9I Falcon armor.
- Rebalanced stashes in Zaton region.
- Improved regeneration and spawn of random anomalies after emission.
Bug Fixes, Crashes, and Performance
- Made performance optimization of light and shadows in multiple regions and locations.
- Improved LODs for grass in multiple regions.
- Performance optimization for light garland at 100 Rads Bar.
- Some other Under the Hood CPU performance and optimizations tweaks were made.
- Fixed an issue where bullet hit decals would not appear on certain parts of Mutant and NPC bodies.
- Fixed an issue where a Vortex arch-anomaly was throwing NPC corpses under terrain.
- Fixed an issue where an anomaly spawned by an Electric Poltergeist was invisible.
- Fixed an issue where stamina was spent even if action wasn’t available.
- Fixed generic issues where NPCs were unable to reach a scripted animation pose if it was located too far.
- Fixed an issue where Zombies were able to fall under level geometry.
- Fixed an issue where sounds of raindrops were playing for certain props located underground.
- Fixed an issue where Player was able to stuck behind the door in Sidorovich’s bunker.
- Fixed an issue with the HUD opacity option not working.
- Fixed an issue where dynamic shadows cast by flashlight appeared jagged.
- Fixed an issue where some effects could stuck on the player after loading a save.
- Fixed an issue where some effects could not be applied to the player after loading a save.
- Fixed an issue where increment in Psi Protection was displayed on armor stat bar when selecting Radiation Protection upgrade on some exosuits.
- Fixed an issue where Player was able to get to Prypiat ahead of time by jumping over the railroad cistern on Yaniv.
- Fixed an issue where a broken weapon didn’t have a red background when equipped.
- Fixed Trader items being sorted after cancelling trade.
- Fixed an issue where no technicians in the game were able to install “Extra Barrel Upgrade” to SVDM-2 and Lynx sniper rifles
- Fixed an issue where mutants with telekinetic abilities were unable to pick up or throw items or corpses directly at Player.
- Fixed an issue where Bayun didn’t deal any damage during his Jump Attack.
Main & Side Quests, Open World Encounters
- Fixed an issue where objective Find Spirit could not end if the player talks to Spirit again right after finishing dialogue during The Boundary mission.
- Fixed an issue where was not appearing on the roof of Comm Center during bossfight in Once More Unto The Breach mission, if Player distracted him with a grenade.
- Fixed an issue where didn’t approach Visiograph to start dialogue with Player during Visions Of Truth mission.
- Fixed an issue where Snork’s collar wasn’t counted as collected if Snork’s corpse is already despawned in In The Name Of Science mission.
- Fixed an issue where Player was able to get stuck closed behind two bunker doors in airlocks during The Last Step mission.
- Fixed an issue where Max Saturday was already dead and despawned for some users during The Lost Boys mission.
- Fixed an issue where a part of the world was missing at the exit from an underground teleportation room near Death Valley in certain conditions during Through The Valley Of The Shadow Of Death mission.
- Fixed an issue with an unresponsive during the Down Below mission.
- Fixed an issue when A Matter Of Honor mission wasn’t completed if the player killed all Duty members after repelling the Monolith attack.
- Fixed an issue when Skif could die from bleeding in cutscene after the during the Down Below mission.
- Fixed an issue where the door leading out of Noontide base was locked during the Just Like The Good Old Days mission.
- Fixed an issue that prevented re-entering the tunnel after it was opened by a scanner during The Boundary mission.
- Fixed an issue with missing Richter during The Boundary mission.
- Fixed an issue with inability to progress the walkthrough of Just Like The Good Old Days mission if the fuse was thrown out of inventory.
- Fixed an issue where the Ganja mission The Freedom Colosseum was absent if the player character teleported to Rostok via guide.
- Fixed an issue with the inability to talk to Dubniy during the Hot On The Trail mission.
- Fixed an issue with a locked bunker during the The Boundary mission.
- Fixed an issue when it was unable to talk with Roosevelt in the mission Legends of the Zone.
- Fixed an issue where the “Get to the helicopter pad” journal objective was not ending during the Law And Order mission.
- Fixed an issue where Player’s Camera could get stuck panning at Darwin’s corpse, if Player did save/load during an encounter mission at Ruined Bridge, Backwater region.
- Removed redundant invisible collision in the middle of Ganja’s bar at Rostok base.
- Fixed an issue where Richter and Warlock’s comments in A Tough Awakening mission could get stuck resulting in permanent Emission weather after Hot on the Trail mission.
- Fixed an issue where friendly NPCs were not interactable during Dawn Of A New Day mission if Player threw grenades inside Rostok Depot.
- Fixed an issue where emission shelter at Noontide base didn’t protect Player after save/load during Just Like The Good Old Days mission.
- Fixed an issue where repeatable missions from multiple vendors were stuck on the reward stage.
- Fixed an issue where Player couldn’t talk to Squint during A Needle In A Haystack mission if they sold his artifact.
- Fixed an issue where Gray’s Last Hunt mission was not finished if the deer mutant was despawned.
- Fixed an issue where Player was unable to give a briefcase to Sultan during The Mysterious Case mission, if they killed ambushing stalkers before talking to them.
- Fixed an issue where the game didn’t progress after talking to Senkevych in the Like A Moth To The Flame mission due to the missing radio operator NPC nearby.
- Fixed an issue where a marker was missing on Richter during the Bring the collar to Richter journal stage of A Minor Incident mission.
- Fixed an issue where Player was able to get stuck in a basement near a cemetery during the Eye of the Storm mission.
- Fixed an issue where was not appearing at the Malachite secret entrance after clearing out X17 in the Visions Of Truth mission.
- Fixed an issue where Player could leave via elevator without a way back during assault in Visions Of Truth mission.
- Fixed an issue where Akopyan refused to talk with Player during A Big Score mission.
- Fixed an issue where Player wasn’t able to progress the story after reaching Generators during emission in Through The Valley Of The Shadow Of Death mission.
- Fixed an issue where Player was able to break cutscene with the pod and stuck in the room with Richter during The Last Wish mission.
- Fixed an issue where was not available for some users during the Visions Of Truth mission.
- Fixed an issue when the On the Edge mission could start after the death of all stalkers .
- Fixed an issue when the All That Is Left mission could not be finished if the player agreed to throw Wardens body into an anomaly.
- Fixed an issue where was dashing too often and almost didn’t attack Player during .
Technical Updates
- Improved pathing for NPCs.
- Minor polishment and improvement for scripted NPC animations.
- Human characters that turn on flashlights are now slightly more illuminated and visible in the dark.
- Improved sound obstruction for grenades thrown outside from indoors location.
- Added a new emission shelter in Chemical Plant’s dining room.
- Added emission shelter to technician room at Ranger Station, Zaton region.
- Improved facial animations and realism.
- Improved impact sounds for the bolt.
- Removed redundant blur effect on Player’s vitals stat panel during trade.
- Added Player’s vitals stat panel in the trade menu.
- Added new death animations and sound effects for electricity, acid, bullet, and rat bites’ damage.
We thought that these updates deserve their own spotlight, please be ready!
- Fixed an issue where shooting at sausage props produced blood particles
- Fixed an issue where ducks could fly into the water after being shot at.
