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nkenny

Small AI tweaks for great effect

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Gibbets "Copy My Stance" addon ...

Nice addon, but this would only partly solve the issue.

The point is that AIs need to change their stance individually and intelligently. Since there is the bounding overwatch feature, where the AIs are moving one after another to make an approach, every unit needs to change their stance independently, appropriate to the "local" situation given. I wont repeat what the thread starter already has laid out. These changes would resolve the issues everyone should be experiencing. But it seems most people don't notice or found backdoors to undergo that issue (like the addon you mentioned), since I don't feel that there is enough feedback on this problem.

BTW BIS desctiption of combat modes:

Yeah, the description sounds good, but in reality it's not like that. You see some of those points in approach, but for example the stances taken by the AIs aren't adequate.

Edited by LeadCommando65

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I use Pilflus (profile is in my sig) but this is XP only it seems, some complain issues with vista and wont work with win7.

Thanks for reminding me of the free alternative and you actually made me update my long overdue signature as well ;)

Will try out the latest version of Gibbets "Copy My Stance" addon (had some issues with his first one) but still wishes for improvements in stock A2...

/KC

Edited by KeyCat

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I have to confess going back to the OFP I realised i had this thread mixed up with another that has a very similar title with "tips" on using AI ... so yes what I posted may help but isnt directed to the OP, sorry, my confusion.

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I am glad this thread has generated some attention. Like many others I believe the default AI is on the conceptual level a rather capable opponent, its failure lay mainly in the individual AIs execution of said tactics/plans.

Unnecessary exposure, lack of noise discipline, and unwillingness to exercise tactical patience gets more AI soldiers killed than strictly necessary. It is my firm belief that it is possible to greatly enhance its (the AIs) tactical expertise by introducing some simple—yet harsher rules of engagements as presented in the original post.

Being written in pre-BAF days, the Original post itself is somewhat dated. As of 1.56 there are subtle changes in how the AI handles itself mostly for the better. Even so many of the tweaks and concerns presented by myself and other posters are still quite relevant

Persistent squad issues in arma2

:: Atrocious pathfinding

:: Bounding Overwatch often renders the squad combat ineffective

:: Ineffective ROE changes (stealth doesn’t make the squad stealthy)

:: AI teammembers incapable of following human TL up or down certain slopes etc

:: Cumbersome user interface

etc

The original post probably deserves to be updated.

Thanks,

-k

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The AI should be taught to see the Field of View (sight cone) of dangerous threats that they "knows about". For example, if the group was patrolling down a street when they get ambushed by a vehicle with a heavy machine gun covering the street they are in, they should factor in the view cone (field of view) when they are recalculating their positions and pathways. They should avoid the view cone of the threat and their behavior should move them out of it if they sense they are caught in it.

Initially they seem to respond fairly well to the discovery of the ambush, they usually, but not always, move to the sides of the street and try and make use of corners and walls for cover. However, what they do next is what will ultimately get them all killed.

Once the alarm-response is finished, they start "micromanaging" themselves, moving and repositioning themselves oblivious to the kill-zone that the street has become... minor AI adjustment behaviors see the AI moving back into the view cone of dangerous enemies where they promptly get machine gunned down.

When AI are picking and plotting their navigation nodes, they should detect when a Node is covered by the View Cone of an enemy and then treat it as invalid... a new conditional branch of their FSM should dictate what to do when this happens. For example, AI that become "trapped" because their only valid node is covered by an enemy FOV, should call out that they are trapped ("I'm pinned down, help!"), they should then deal with the invalid node if they can.... other allied AI should suppress the enemy covering the Node with gun fire to free the trapped trooper, or toss smoke on the node to block enemy view cones, then move through it and not stop on it.

Sometimes I think in the effort to make the AI as human as possible in both behavior and response.... they end up being even more robotic then ever. I think this is one of those situations...

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Great observations and ideas Spamurai!

/KC

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Yeah I strongly agree with this and the original post. I think for me it is one of the biggest reasons why I lose soldiers.

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Spamurai great post and ideas. In my opinion if the AI needs to cheat to be believable its OK. The AI needs to be believable and not actually to think like humans.

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To make it more human like, a randomness can always be put in. Example from Spamurai, to prevent the expected reaction of AI getting pinned down, maybe a function to call for "special" action can be factored in. Such as a dash of bravery to the pinned down soldier to do a "run for ya life" to the other side... But surely more juice will be drawn from the CPU cycle.

Then again... some people will say it's a BUG....

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When AI are picking and plotting their navigation nodes, they should detect when a Node is covered by the View Cone of an enemy and then treat it as invalid...

Not only enemies. Just yesterday, I had an AI run in front of me while I was firing, with obvious results. They tend to not look at fire arcs of squadmates. They should pass behind me, not directly in front of me, more so since the squad was in "danger" mode.

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