AI drivers! Simple but important changes!

[WKK Gimbal]

Ok, we all know AI drivers are awful. But here a few things that would make life ALOT easier for both the AI and the players!

First, civilians and others driving cars should STICK to the road, and not zig-zag into the side of the road all the time. It should not be too difficult to make the AI focus on the road when driving non-offroad vehicles.
Try putting a sportscar on Malden with waypoints along a road and watch him drive!

Second, when using the arrow keys to direct an AI tank driver, the keys should function like when you drive it yourself. Forward means forward, but sometimes AI start making strange detours and drive in other directions or go slow:

This makes them lethal close to mined areas!

If your tank is being shelled by enemies, you want the driver to go reverse when you say so, and not when he feels like it!

When other people are chatting on the radio, your orders to the driver gets low priority. This can mean that when you say stop, he can continue driving forward several 100 meters before he gets the command, because someone else takes up the bandwith with their chatter! This is highly lethal and very very annoying!

By giving the player commander direct control of the driving, with the arrow keys, all this will be solved! He can still say the commands for cosmetic reasons.

[medvidek]

If the AI driver is in Safe mode he drives strictly to the waypoint

First thing - your orders only go into low priority if YOU are talking on the radio. How can you give orders if you are talking on the radio at the same time? YOu can give all the orders you want when OTHERS are talking.

Next, if you want to have very quick control of the tank - i.e., when you press forward, he goes forward, then you should get into the driver's seat. Having immediate response to your commands is not very realistic.

[Kaveman]

"First thing - your orders only go into low priority if YOU are talking on the radio. ***How can you give orders if you are talking on the radio at the same time? ***YOu can give all the orders you want when OTHERS are talking. " - OBiJuan

Sorry but that is not true, your orders don't have priority over anyone, try to play a mission with lot's of guys in your squad and lot's of East soldiers to kill. I did that and i lost all my guys (bots) because i would give the order to got to medic (example) and only after many enemy soldier warnings later i heard the order being given, of course by that time the soldier in question was already dead. I can give u many other examples of this. So unfortunatly it's true what WKK Gimbal says, it doesn't matter if it's u talking on the radio or your mates, your orders appear in order of arrival, wich sucks. Our orders should have top priority even if it means shutting up our mates. After all it's our orders that make the difference between being sucessfull or slaughted. http://www.flashpoint1985.com/ikonboard3/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif

I swear when I'm playing, my orders go through when I send them, even if others are talking. THey only don't go through when I'm talking (i.e., I spot the the enemies, I'm radio-ing in to base, etc.). I'll give it another go, but haven't noticed what you folks describe.

Could I ask you give it another go, maybe disable "auto-reporting"?

[Kaveman]

"Auto-Reporting"? I'll try to find that tonight and pray for it to work. http://www.flashpoint1985.com/ikonboard3/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif

FYI - auto-reporting is in the difficulty settings.

I played again last night, and even in a fierce battle, with lots of radio reports, I could issue orders. ***THe only time I could not was when I was calling out the location of enemies ("soldier, 12 o'clock, apc, 9 o'clock, etc, etc"). ***Check out the words on the bottom of the screen. ***If you are on the radio, it says your name before the words:

1(ObiJuan): "Soldier, 12 o'clock"

Or something like that. ***I believe it's a different color as well.

obi

(Edited by OBiJuan at 10:57 pm on Nov. 27, 2001)

Well, how did it go? Am I offbase here or what?

[Kaveman]

Sorry for the delay, i was putting what u said to the test in several missions. It still happens, my orders still appear in order of arrival, my soldiers r naming the enemies soldiers and they only received the order to go to medic after he was dead. But this is in multyplayer missions, i'm gonna try it in the last single mission that came with the 1.30 (the one recomended for 1GHz PC's or more).

[Kaveman]

btw when this happens i'm not even seeing any East soldier. I stayed back to test. it I wasn't talking to the radio. This problem is extremely annoying when i'm in a heli or tank with a Bot, they only fire away after I gave the order http://www.flashpoint1985.com/ikonboard3/non-cgi/emoticons/sad.gif .

[Kaveman]

btw when this happens i'm not even seeing any East soldier. I stayed back to test. it I wasn't talking to the radio. This problem is extremely annoying when i'm in a heli or tank with a Bot, they only fire away after I gave the order http://www.flashpoint1985.com/ikonboard3/non-cgi/emoticons/sad.gif .

[Kaveman]

All it takes is a tiny error and bang! 2 posts exactly the same, http://www.flashpoint1985.com/ikonboard3/non-cgi/emoticons/wink.gif . Well I tryied it in single player and it still happens.

I wonder if it's because in the big single player one, you are not the leader? Maybe that's why we've been getting different results...

Oh well. Maybe I'll give it a third try and see. I swear if I am in a tank (as commander) on chopper (as pilot), the guys under me do what I say right away, unless I am talking... but I'll try it again. I guess the bottom line is, I don't have the problems you are describing - or at least haven't noticed it...