Changing the AI's view/hear distance? Thread - L.U.R.K. mod for S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Shadow of Chernobyl

I'm kind of stuck at the Army barracks in Cordon, in which I must retrieve a box of documents. Even as I move in pitch black, no lights on, the AI can still see me over 200 meters away, or even hear me if I just brush a bit of leaves of a bush some 100 meters away.

As I don't like to go in, guns blazing, into the barracks - not that I'd survive, anyway - I'd like to know which lines of which files must I modify to reduce the überhuman sensorial aptitudes of the military. Or if there is another way to circumvent this.

PowerPuffSoldier wrote: As I don't like to go in, in the most badass fashion possible, into the barracks - because I'm casual - I'd like to know which lines of the necronomicon must I envoke to reduce (excessively diverse diction which boils down to "THE GAME CHEATS BAWWWWW"). Or if there is another way to pussify this.

You may not know this, but there are four difficultly settings. If you can't handle 'Master', I'd recommend 'Casual', 'Double Casual' or 'Oh shit nigger, what are you doing'.

I did reduce the difficulty. It's on stalker, currently. There doesn't seem to be any visible difference between those settings when it comes to AI sound/view detection when I'm at the army barracks.

Edited by: PowerPuffSoldier

Well I'm guessing your current situation is that you woke them up and they're all in the courtyard shooting at you nonestop while you're at the top of the hill.
The best thing to do would be to flank around and try to kill the two snipers on the left roof. After that, throwing a few grenades into the courtyard will disperse them and you'll have a view walls you can hug for defense. Shouldn't be too hard after that.

The ModDB community.. as helpful as ever.

I'm waiting for someone to come along and actually answer the question instead of bullshitting around, because I too would like to know how to unfuck the AI.

If you go to gamedata/config/creatures, inside the various m_X.ltx files, find the section under VISIBILITY to change around AI view behavior. I think m_stalker.ltx provides the most effect. You can find the same values in m_stalker.ltx under VISIBILITY and stalker_vision_free and stalker_vision_danger.

NOTE: In m_stalker.ltx, the danger and free parameters are eschewed and are neatly categorized under stalker_vision_free and stalker_vision_danger.

eye_fov - controls AI field of view - the higher, the wider they see
eye_range - how far they see, the higher the more distant they see
min_view_distance_danger - a factor multiplied on eye_range to determine minimum view distance when AI is alert/in combat
max_view_distance_danger - a factor multiplied on eye_range to determine maximum view distance when AI is alert/in combat
min_view_distance_free - a factor multiplied on eye_range to determine minimum view distance when AI is unalert
max_view_distance_free - a factor multiplied on eye_range to determine maximum view distance when AI is unalert
visibility_threshold - in the developer's notes, it says that "Value, at achievement by which sum is considered object visible." I'm not entirely clear on what it does, but raising it seems to increase the AI view distance. This is a very high value in LURK by default, so I suspect this is the most to blame.
luminocity_factor - this seems to affect AI view behavior depending on light intensity. The higher it is, AI will have a harder time noticing things in darker environments. It seems to set a light intensity threshold of sorts.

I am unsure what the time_quant, decrease_value, transparency_factor, or velocity_factor parameters do.

Also, as far as sound, I don't have much in the way of help sorry. The most I noticed were values under stalker_sound_perceive that listed

weapon
item
npc
anomaly
world

The values seem to control the hearing threshold for various objects. The higher it is - other than 0 that is - the more difficult it is for the AI it seems to hear things. Values range from 0 to 1 apparently.

Edited by: rayndeon

The reason I'm dickbutting around with bullshit is because this mod is supposed to make the game more difficult. I guess I'm alone in assuming that because I can see the enemy, the enemy is probably capable of seeing me. The AI has never challenged me in STALKER before, so I'm glad to see things turned up a few notches. Besides, when I had problems with mods for this game I never once went on a forum and asked for help, I solved my own problems on my own, so I don't exactly have much empathy for someone complaining about difficulty and asking me to fix it for them.

Then you, sir, are and asshat and don't belong in a "community" much less a mod community where people are supposed to help each other and share ideas.

I'm just saying if we cater to everyone's individual opinions we'll have no end to the changes that need to be made. This is the LURK team's mod, not ours. I'm trying to buffer opinions by urging people to not complain and instead offer opinions in a form that isn't offensive to the aim of the mod itself. Not to mention I couldn't handle the irony of complaining about "überhuman sensorial aptitudes of the military" because he was unable to out-wit a checkpoint full of combat-trained soldiers. So maybe I'll give "helpful" a chance.

You're being spotted by the guy in the watchtower. He pivots from side to side with binoculars and has much greater view distance and perception than the rest of the base. Even if it's dark and raining, it's a reasonable assumption that the military has nightvision just like you, and since you're moving in through a lightly forested area, there's no way to be completely covered at all times, so you're bound to be spotted in the open at some point. Keep in mind grass doesn't provide cover as an game engine limitation. You might be able to move in undetected, but first you'd at least have to take out the watcher.

Though this is probably useless information, for the sake of thought I suppose it's interesting to note that, assuming the military has binoculars just as good if not better than those you carry in-game, they would likely be able to pick you up with that little target tracker box.

As for the matter at hand, however, their vision is still bullshit. I was in the Agroprom Research Institute the other night (literally) and in-game it was the middle of the night, during a massive storm. I'm talking complete gray-out, could barely see. Yet somehow all the soldiers around could still see perfectly. It's bullshit, although I suspect there's no easy way to fix that, as it seems a general rule that NPCs in most games aren't affected by visual impairments that might hinder a human player's ability to see, such as grass or other greenery or, in this case, the storm.

could be that they're hearing you?

check their settings in the creatures file folder.

Rather then arguing, you could all consider providing your own settings and discussing the pro's and con's you may of noticed in-game.

That way we can all compare what we know works and what doesn't.

If they can hear me that far away.. in the middle of a storm.. there's something seriously wrong.

In any case, I haven't messed with the NPCs' view/hear distance, only the way they handle weapons. Thus, my settings in that area are still the default mod's setting.

If you find yourself getting caught/spotted:
you weren't stealthy enough / didn't scout and plan enough / chose a bad route

I'm perfectly fine with the settings as they are, because they are challenging, so I plan ahead, really hard, to make it on the first try. This coming from someone who doesn't use quicksaves, only autosaves with a couple of backup saves in safe locations.

For once, stealth requires four elements to make it work on the first try: scouting, planning, adapting and patience. If you find yourself getting caught, you might want to improve yourself instead of fucking with settings. Can't sneak in no matter how you try? There's other options too, if you're cut for it (sneaking is not always the easy way), and I still don't mean going guns blazing. Just saying, man. Scout and plan ahead, this FPS requires some brain for a change.

Edited by: snoski

I'm liking this mod, however the enemy's senses are exaggerated beyond reality. They are currently frustrating for me,not challenging. I've played STALKER on master loads of times, but now it's too frustrating. I actually lowered it down to stalker difficulty, however it doesn't seem to make any difference.

The thing is that they can spot me from a huge distance away, at night, when I'm crouching. And they are too accurate. There is no way that when I'm slugging across the floor from far away with a sniper I actually get shot and killed because the bandits are suddenly alerted to my presence, and their aim is flawless. This is beyond reality.

@snoski: Of course I do scout and plan ahead, I know what I have to do. The problem is with the enemy's senses - superhuman.

I'd like to know if I can tweak this, like rayndeon said, however I don't know how to mess with the values.

Don't care about comments regarding someones "mad skills", which were duly noted... but does someone want to actually answer the guys question instead of gloating about their awesome awesomeness(es)?
Just saying... Then again you were also likely played through the Tenchu games and comprehend the art of patience versus sentry routes.
I'm sure the appropriate palm to fist bow gestures are in order. :b

That said,I too find the A.I. a bit wonky when it comes to detection. In my experience I had to initially make bandits detect me better since I would run or walk right by in plain sight and they were more interested in wolf's scouts still. Who where 20 or 30 ft away while I was only 7ish.

Then later (probably after some tinkering of my own), it was pitch black out and a different group (same area) were able to spot me.

I was more irritated that I couldn't see them since how freaking dark everything was... and that when I got up to them that I couldn't knife them unless at very very very point blank. Knife distance was at 1.6, I put to 1.8. for now.... Hell.. we can pick stuff up further away than 1.6.

Anywei... you should probably be changing the settings in the m_army.ltx for both sound_threshold, fov (170, my balls!), and settings to do with light detection. Bare in mind they are trained sentries and not a bunch of hooded punks wearing ski-masks. Your gonna have to tweak stuff yourself.
Post your findings here.

I'm still in Garbage trying to fix a bug that keeps killing people at the camp sites from the fire............ finding no solution. even past fixes haven't been working...

FOUND THIS: "Reloading a saved game in the presence of NPCs will usually alert them to your presence. This is likely due to the fact that your character will "equip" a weapon or tool (e.g., binocs) in a noisy manner." ~ Metacognix.com
That used to be a problem for me.

Edited by: tao_taier

I remember in the BETA of LURK, enemies would always be unaware if you crouched up to them from behind, they usually would hear you if you where half a meter from them xD. Good times they were. I might just edit LURK 1.1's code a bit and make it the same as the BETA for the awareness of the enemies.

PowerPuffSoldier

I'm making a walkthrough for this mod at the moment. Don't know if this will help but I managed to get up to the documents without being seen with this path.

Video - Youtube.com

transparency_factor has to do with how well they see through brush or walls (I find).

Lower it to make them less capable of seeing through things.

I think it may work as a multiplier of sorts but I've assumed that wasn't the case and that it was a reflection of how thin something must be in order for them to see through it... as you would want them to see through windows and glass and maybe even light brush.

If the latter is the case which I've assumed so then it is easier to understand how it works. As the number would be a direct measurement or base of which.

It would be good to keep in mind the other settings while editing this like always_visible_distance and those revolving around sound.

It wouldn't surprise me visibility_threshold plays some sort of role too.

Luminosity has to do with how blind they are to you when your hidden in shadows. Doesn't seem apply to "overall" darkness. I find.I've heard from other sources that 0.85 is a good range for it.
as for visibility_threshold I think works in a way where if set it to 400.0, then 40 is whats taken away from the eye_range max.Perhaps thats what they meant by "Value, at achievement by which sum is considered object visible."? otherwise I'm way off but raising it has seemed to work. I noticed a difference little by little as I got it high enough. Only did it to bandits though. Fights have been a lot more interesting. Since I can now realistically hide while they can realistically find me. tweaked time_quant to a higher value so that to could of changed things.

If someone can prove me an idiot on this and possibly explain exactly how this all works I'd be more reassured since I wouldn't want to be spreading misinformation.