Stalkers will act with the correct day/night behavior cycle - at night they're mostly sleeping, in the morning they wake up, prepare the equipment and leave the camp to search for artifacts - individually or as groups. As evening comes, they'll start to return to the camp with loot (or without it). Developers are going to rework the behavior and trade system, so you won't see the 5000 rubles and vodka in the backpacks of stalkers - they'll carry what they actually bought or collected. It allows some interesting schemes for dark side adepts - for example, you can wait for stalker to collect the artifacts and kill him returning to the camp to get your hands over the loot
Monsters will raise their activity at night. By the way, yes - there will be burer and chimera. Those models were already been in SoC recourses, but wasn't used in game due to various reasons. Developers said that they wanted unique enemies, so another dog-like close combat mutant is not needed. So, in sequel, they gave burer and chimera unique abilities and behavior. Chimera will use swift and deadly leaps from the dark while staying unnoticed and stealthed, try to avoid player to see it before the attack. Burer will widely use his telekinetic abilities - for example, for disarming characters. Or at least to make concrete block fall on your head
The stats balance for other monsters will be reworked. For example, bloodsucker will be a bit weaker, but more dangerous, his invisibility won't make him immortal, he will act slightly different.
The attention to details in Call of Pripyat is really surprising. For example, after the blowout anomalies will change their position and the artifacts will appear in completely different places, making almost impossible to memorize the safe route and run without detector like in Shadow of Chernobyl. By the way, it'll be possible to sleep! You won't be able to sleep under the bush within the bag, but on every base you'll find the suiting places to sleep at night. Much better than waiting for the morning in SoC while having time for a tea. Ten cups of tea. Or even more.
But, well, maybe you won't want to sleep at night. There are a lot tactical possibilities and, also - many quests are available only at night
There will be about 70 new unique quests. Small corridor-like locations are in past - prepare to explore three giantic territories:
- Darkwater - marshy territory, heavy affected with anomalies and densely built with various agricultural structures.
- "Jupiter" - industrial territory around and in the huge abandoned factory (by the way, the "Jupiter exists in the real Desolation Zone | translator note).
- Pripyat - 100% precise recreation of east Pripyat part, with central post office, school and other famous places. By the way, the city will be properly placed on the global map - north-west from NPP, not south, as in the previous games. The most important is that this level won't be corridor-like as Limansk in CS or Pripyat in SoC - no, it'll be huge territory with lots of various quests and non-linear exploring possibilities.
To say straight, Call of Pripyat looks like the wise and massive work on mistakes done in previous games. There won't be helicopter bosses, infinite faction wars and other elements that are theoretically interesting, but doesn't fit to S.T.A.L.K.E.R at all. Well-turned features like new detection system or weapon upgrading will be there too, but in overall look the Call of Pripyat is closer to the original S.T.A.L.K.E.R concept with dangerous, desolated and silent Zone where stalkers are rare and gloomy loners, where's no place for huge groups and tons of gunfights. We really hope that the developers will follow this line, because this time they've chosen really proper vector.
We're looking forward for the meeting with the dark and cloudy world of eternal autumn where it's not possible to live, but... where you still want to return. Again and again.