Stalker 2 has faction wars now: Enemies 'can expand control over new territories' in its 1.7 jumbo patch that also adds mega-hard mode and makes hiding in bushes meaningful

Just three days out from Stalker 2's first birthday (doesn't time fly?) GSC Game World has released another meaty patch for its unique, ambitious, and at times conflagrating shooter. Patch 1.7 is a doozy—you can tell because it's one of those patches a developer puts out a video to mark—and it's out now.

There are a few significant tweaks here, but the things that stand out to me are: yet more fixes for the game's A-Life system and a whole new difficulty. That's in descending order of importance, so far as I'm concerned.

The A-Life fixes sound a lot more interesting than GSC's prosaic "Fixes and improvements to the A-Life system" makes it sound. If you're not familiar, A-Life is the name GSC gives to the systems in all its Stalker games that, more or less, let the games' beasts and NPCs pursue independent lives and objectives. It's always kind of an illusion, but it's an illusion that many felt was especially lacking in Stalker 2 at launch.

The big change today? "Factions can expand control over new territories." Which, let me be the first to say: hell yeah. "This means they may also lose control over their lands if they fail to defend them. Various points of interest, checkpoints, locations (but not hubs) are in contest between different NPCs and… mutants! They also want to defend their lairs and territories from their very unfriendly stalker-neighbours," says GSC.

Bellum omnium contra omnes, except some of the omnes are packs of like 40 dogs. This sounds great. I've not had a chance to test it yet, but I found Stalker 2's factions a little lacking at launch. Where previous games—particularly Clear Sky, whose faction war system was its centrepiece—placed a lot of weight in your relationship with their factions, in Stalker 2, they rarely felt meaningful. I'm very glad to see GSC giving them some love.

The new difficulty, meanwhile, is essentially ultra-hard mode. GSC hasn't actually said a great deal about what this entails—save that it's very hard and you can only select it at the start of a game—but we can likely take some cues from the OG game's Master mode. Bullets and monsters hit so hard that even a gunfight with a single battle turns into a huge event in Shadow of Chornobyl's hardest difficulty; I suspect the same will be true of Stalker 2.

Those aside, 1.7 also tweaks the enemy's line of sight—hiding behind bushes and long grass will play havoc with their aim now—adds new anomalies, changes some equipment stats, reworks sprinting and stamina, and plenty else besides. You can find the full patch notes below.

Stalker 2 Patch 1.7 notes

Highlights

• Fixes and improvements to the A-Life system
• Master Difficulty & Expedition Mode (This difficulty level can only be selected at the beginning of the game)
• NPC Vision & Combat Update
• Inventory & Equipment Stats Update
• Stamina and sprint rework
• New anomalies
• Controller aim improvements
• Immersive Mode
• Light Rainy weather scenario
• SD Cards with coupons

AI and Combat

• Numerous fixes and improvements to the A-Life system, so now factions can expand control over new territories. This means they may also lose control over their lands if they fail to defend them. Various points of interest, checkpoints, locations (but not hubs) are in contest between different NPCs and… mutants! They also want to defend their lairs and territories from their very unfriendly stalker-neighbours.
• With Update 1.7, enemies have real problems detecting you in tall grass or reeds, and are much less accurate when shooting through the bushes. Swamp shootouts will feel fair at last! You can now use the greenery to your full advantage, but be cautious – the closer you are to an enemy, the more likely you are to be spotted.
• Mutants and NPCs have also learned to retreat from the fight if they realize that chances for survival are low. They will also try to flank more actively, and choose a distance to fight from that best suits their weapon. 
• It’s also worth noting that NPC combat animation timings were slightly tweaked to make their movement more realistic. Oh, and mutants have also received new death animations.
• Fixed some issues with specific NPC inhabitant areas.
• Improved AI reaction to player's hostile actions.
• NPC behavior during Emission optimization.
• Fixed an issue that caused NPCs to occasionally move to the side after detecting an enemy
• Fixed an issue when A-life NPCs didn't move after loading a save that were made on their way to shelter.
• Fixed an issue when the NPCs could get damage from explosions while being behind several walls.
• Fixed the issue when some Boar mutants could look like Human NPCs near the Malachite, causing the game to crash.
• Fixed the issue when Controller could attack Zombified and Raised NPCs.
• Fixed the issue when the NPCs weren't reacting to the shots from Gauss rifle that were landed near them.
• Adjusted Combat behavior of bandits in Prologue mission.
• Fixed death animations for mutants in some specific cases.
• Fixed the issue when the NPCs weren't returning to their stay destination point after the sudden combat.
• Fixed the issue when the random neutral Stalkers were becoming the enemy to the Player character.
• Fixed an issue that caused NPCs to get stuck in a weapon draw animation loop.
• Fixed an issue when NPCs were unable to shoot the Player after they get too close to them while crouched.
• Fixed an issue where mutants could change their position during jump midair.
• Fixed an issue when some NPCs were not hiding from the emission and die from in Zalissya location.

Bug Fixes, Crashes, and Performance

• Fixed an issue when player was able to die instantly after fast travel.
• Fixed visual issues for Vortex anomaly.
• Fixed an issue when Player was unable to install x8 scope to Mark I EMR rifle.
• Fixed an issue when magazine adapter for M860 was not displaying.
• Fixed an issue with delayed reaction of the mutants when killing them by using shotgun.
• Fixed an issue when game could freeze during the emission start.
• Fixed an issue when title was becoming unresponsive if Skif was knocked down by mutants while sitting near the campfire.
• Fixed an issue where the backup files could be sorted randomly after reopening the backup menu.
• Fixed an issue where the cursor could not be controlled after placing a custom marker using gamepad.
• Fixed an issue where the notifications about receiving notes could remain on the screen infinitely.
• Fixed an issue where, if the Numpad 5 and 2 keys were assigned to move forward/back, rotating the camera up/down would also be triggered.
• Fixed an issue where some steel casings lying on the ground could appear totally black.
• Fixed an issue where some metal objects could change their color on approaching.
• Fixed an issue where the changed input binding for NVG did not work during the dialogs.
• Fixed an issue where the aim assist could turn off after opening the pause menu.
• Fixed an issue where the player could not activate NVG via mouse wheel while climbing a ladder.
• Fixed an issue where the psy effect could remain after leaving the dangerous area for some users.
• Fixed an issue where some players could gain unkillable state after some points in the game.
• Fixed an issue where a very loud sound effect of a running water could be heard around the Swamp area under SIRCAA and around the Swamps region.
• Reduced resources consumption before cutscenes start.
• Performance optimization regarding the projectile hitting the surface.
• Performance optimization of damage dealt by grenades.
• Fixed an issue that caused performance issues with item objects inside anomalies.
• Fixed an issue that caused Flashlight to appear above the head of NPC with NVG.
• Fixed infinite loading on the save that were made in 100 Rads Bar.
• Fixed the impossibility to make two saves in a row after overwriting or deleting the previous save.
• Fixed Infinite loading screen on saves made on Noontide base.
• Fixed an issue when aim assist was not functional after loading of saved game.
• Fixed over 90 crashes.

Optimization

• Optimized Foliage Meshes (changes in performance may be particularly noticeable in the Red Forest).
• Optimized Foliage Materials.
• Optimized Rostok buildings (Architecture meshes and collision improvements).
• Optimized Duga region buildings (Architecture meshes and collision improvements).
• World streaming optimizations on most intense locations (Zalissya, Rostok, Slag Heap).
• Optimized Lighting on Slag Heap, Zalissya, SIRCAA, Rostok.
• Optimized NPCs skeletal meshes.
• Optimized Grooms.
• Optimized and adjusted Skeletal Mesh budgeting.
• Optimized usage of Morph Targets.
• Optimized Tick Rate of simulated Components by prioritizing visible primitives with higher screen size.
• Optimized update of items used in Contextual Actions.
• Optimized Cloth Simulation.
• Optimized animation update of placed in world Skeletal Meshes.

Main & Side Quests, Open World Encounters

• Fixed an issue when Squint dead body and becomes inaccessible to the Player if he was killed without starting the dialog during the A Needle in a Haystack mission.
• Fixed an issue when Player was able to get to the first floor of the Chemical Plant from the roof and unable to exit during Escape from the Cage mission.
• Multiple immersion fixes for A School of Life mission. 
• Fixed an issue when Scar was missing in X17 Lab during Visions of Truth mission.
• Fixed an issue when all dialogues with Varan were excluded if Player lose his reputation after accepting the Deal with the Devil mission.
• Fixed an issue when Player was able to get higher reward after completing a job task from Warlock.
• Fixed an issue when Kill the bloodsucker objective was still active after killing the bloodsucker during Nightingale’s Hunt mission.
• Fixed an issue when Player was unable to proceed through the "Wishful Thinking" mission.
• Optimized resources consumption for the cutscene with Dalin and Korshunov inside D2 room during Wishful Thinking mission.
• Fixed an issue when objective Discover the location of the cellar was not completing after receiving of cellar coordinates during The Poppy Field mission.
• Fixed an issue when Player was unable to get a money reward from Nightingale after giving him the dog collar during the Dogfight mission.
• Fixed an issue where the Ward assault squad could die from Emission during the Answers Come at a Price mission.
• Fixed an issue where the weather could not change after some point in the game.
• Level art and design improvements for multiple locations.
• Fixed an issue where Zhuzha and Gonta were unable to start arguing in scene if the last snork was killed close to Gonta.
• Fixed an issue that occasionally prevented Richter from starting dialogue during the Down Below mission.
• Fixed an issue that caused Agatha to disappear after the dialogue during Wishful Thinking mission.
• Fixed an issue that prevented completion of the Get to the Teleportation Hall objective during The Last Step mission.
• Fixed an issue that occasionally prevented completion of the Fight off the Monolithians objective during Happiness For Everyone mission.
• Fixed an issue that prevented Richter from starting dialogue during the Through The Valley Of The Shadow Of Death mission.
• Fixed an issue that prevented Scar from starting dialogue during The Eternal Shining mission.
• Fixed an issue that prevented Col. Degtyarov from starting dialogue during the Down Below mission.
• Fixed an issue that prevented Dark from starting dialogue during the Legends Of The Zone mission.
• Fixed an issue where Richter didn't run the Cabin during A Tough Awakening mission
• Fixed an issue when the Dalin could be missing during the Law And Order mission.
• Fixed an issue when the Scar is missing at Rostok Depot during An Invisible Threat mission.
• Fixed the issue when player's camera could be locked on the Baturin forever after one of the encounters around the Zone.
• Fixed the issue when the A sign of Hope mission wasn't cancelling after the start of Just Like the Good Old Days mission.
• Fixed the issue with impossibility to start a journal stage to Kill Shterev during the Dead Frequency mission.
• Fixed an issue that prevented the cutscene at Sawmill from starting during Back To The Slag Heap mission.
• Fixed an issue that caused a player to stuck in dialogue with Honta.
• Fixed an issue that prevented bandits from appearing during A Big Score mission.

Mod Support

• Mod conflict detection and notification: in-game popup with the list of conflicting mods
• Detailed conflict dump (with information about exact conflicting CFG nodes) in AppData - Mod conflicts.csv
• Selective Download (Zone Kit is separated into multiple chunks: The Lesser Zone Kit, Zone Kit Editor, Cutscenes, World Map)

Other Updates

• Detector item size in inventory changed to 1x1.
• Fixed an issue where the NVIDIA Reflex Low Latency option could disable after the title reboot.
• Slightly reworked visuals for artifacts and consumables effect influence.
• Fixed 3D audio with Dolby Atmos for headphones and other spatial plugins for Windows.
• Added the option to disable headshot sound in option.
• Improved the voiceover clarity when talking too close to NPC.
• Added icons for partially looted stashes on the map.
• Placed a bit more weapon attachments around the Zone.
• Improved readability of fonts for Japanese, Simplified Chinese, Korean languages.
• Improved some tutorials.