AI Driving? Forget About It!

[JuggernautOfWar 1]

In my experience the AI does not know how to drive any kind of vehicles whatsoever. Apparently when there's a straight road with no obstacles on it they feel the need to swerve off the road and run into a building at full speed. When there's a 90 degree turn they have to do a four-point turn to go around it. God forbid they travel as a group with multiple vehicles. One vehicle will get 'stuck' on an object not knowing how to move, when all they have to do is reverse. Thus all other vehicles in the convoy go about five mph to the waypoint.

Honestly I can tolerate poor AI and poor pathfinding. This is just ridiculous though. I'll take a video of it next time I play to show you what I mean exactly. I'm sure everybody else has encountered this problem countless times.

Funnily enough I remember it being fine back in OFP days, slightly worse in ArmA 1, and then just abysmal in ArmA 2. I'm not sure why the AI is completely incapable of proper pathfinding in ArmA 2, but it sure as hell better be fixed in ArmA 3.

On top of that AI will stare at hostiles for up to a minute sometimes before firing their weapons. I see no reason for this.

Am I the only one that gets incredibly frustrated at the AI in ArmA 2?

The whole point of this is really to get some answers, not just to rant. Can a developer or somebody knowledgeable please tell me either a solution or reason behind each of these troubled areas?

Thank you.

Edited January 9, 2012 by JuggernautOfWar

[Undeceived 392]

You definitely are not the only one. :D

It looks like the AI driving even got worse in 1.60. Now when they start driving on the road, first they drive left, right, left, right, and then "somewhere down the road" they go straight forward.

[katipo66 94]

Any othe mods? Which map? For the most part I've found the driving improved, but haven't really tested it fully to be honest? But I do know that maybe some maps are worse than others, for example AI are hopeless on BRIK2 southern part of the road, and this is straight, but are great on other roading in the map?

Here's the thing that's unforgivable for me and I usually end the mission and or walk away from the game.... AI on foot will not give way to vehicles when on road, so you potentially can have one AI skipping along the road with a whole column of vehicles crawling behind him not knowing how to overtake, at times the AI on foot do not even need to be on the road but just to the side and vehicles may still struggle :mad:

Edited January 9, 2012 by Katipo66

[froggyluv 2136]

I think the AI reaction time has gotten better tho sometimes it still goes wonky. As far as driving, yes they do seem to take things more carefully then my 96 yo Great GrandMother :p

Thats why personality templates could go a long way in a game like this:

Send Sgt. Reckless Raul for supplies and he'll run over every rabbit, cow and Lieutenent without a care at breakneck speed. With ragdolls the lulz alone would make it worth it.

CpL. Nonetooloose Nancy on the other hand will give you a safe, leisurely ride that may take 2 hours/km, but thats...ok. You'll be stopping for butterflys and dandelions along the way.

[EasyC 10]

The last time I had AI drive I was in a tank on a slope, I told the driver to reverse......*deep sigh*

He spun around doing 360s on the spot. Nearly had an aneurysm. In Warfare when you see a red square on the radar and you're desperately trying to get your tank in a position to fire from, the utter hate and frustration for AI shines through.

[igneous01 19]

yup, Ive noticed that when it comes to turns on roads - the AI turns way way too late. They always get off the road when this happens. I dont know how the AI driving is coded, but I assume a change in the distance to turn should be reduced so that they turn earlier. I tried having 4 trucks in a convoy drive me and some troops to an insertion: every turn a vehicle got stuck and it took 5 minutes for the convoy to return to formation and drive at a normal speed.

[metalcraze 290]

AI also doesn't know about a "FAST" button which is 'E'

I want mah xaitment D:

[domokun 515]

Does anyone know of SakuraChan's AI Driving Fix mod is still useful with the 1.60 patch?

[NoRailgunner 0]

In OFP the terrain was less cluttered with objects, low on details and rabbits (+other animals) were not allowed to cross or sit on roads. Try to put one passenger into vehicles which do not have a commander seat incl. those with only gunners. Don't mix convoys just keep them wheeled or tracked and small eg not more than 3-4 vehicles. Otherwise try to script it and see if you can find a good workaround to default AIs driving skills. ;)

[.kju 3244]

CIT#How-to-report-a-bug

[krycek 349]

Yea it seems it got worse in 1.60.They sure don't like roads in Chernarus or Takistan.

[folgore_airborne 1]

I would say AI driving skills are as they have always been in A2, terrible. Didn't notice better or worse with 1.60. But sure as hell that with 1.60 often enemies look at you for a minute before shoot. This happens randomly.

[Tonci87 163]

Stuf that makes me go crazy with driving AI:

Rabbits. One Rabbit can stop a whole convoi.

Friendly soldiers on the other hand will be run over. Well the vehicle will stop first and if they don´t move the´ll get run over.

Cars and Civilians.

Try sending a Convoi through a village with some locals and a few cars parked at the side of the road.

The drivers will try to have at least 3 meters between them and parked cars. The way to go if you want to experience some incredibly frustrating situations on narrow village roads. The Driver also doesn´t care if he drives straight into a house if he can only keep his safe distance to the parked car.

Imagine what happens if there is a parked bus!

Turns. AI takes turns kind of slow. Seriously a little breaking is ok but sometimes they drive so slow that I would be much faster on my bike.

Solution: Make Driving AI totally reckless. Everything on the road simply gets run over if its not friendly or a solid obstacle. Totally ignore animals make the AI not care what is half a meter besides the road. Tanks should also just push away parked cars.

Edited January 9, 2012 by Tonci87

[f2k sel 164]

If your unhappy with the driving then start to vote up the issues.

https://dev-heaven.net/issues/27361

There was a point in the latest patch when driving was much better but some how it slid away on the final release.

I found that if you have one vehicle placing this in the init helps.

this disableAI "FSM"

But don't use it in convoy or you'll see some really bad driving.

[mr.g-c 6]

Yea it seems it got worse in 1.60.They sure don't like roads in Chernarus or Takistan.

Right, i noticed this too, thats why i opened the ticket in the CIS about it. (link: https://dev-heaven.net/issues/27361)

I remember there was a time-period in the ArmA2 World, where this was almost solved, or at least much improved to what we see currently.

Anyway, i have forgotten a few things in the Ticket under the "Expected" list.

How would it be best? The Group Leader, no matter in which car he is, or even if he is on foot, should lead a convoy of multiple vehicles?

Or should a fixed Units be "chosen" by the Group-leader to lead a convoy of multiple cehicles?

Because currently they just randomly taking each other over, the fastet Vehicle will try to get at front, etc.

[nettrucker 142]

yeah with the 1.60 patch the driving got a lot worse. It's hillarious at times.

[ProfTournesol 956]

Stuf that makes me go crazy with driving AI:

Rabbits. One Rabbit can stop a whole convoi.

Lol that's true. Rabbits are frightening tanks, mother nature is taking its revenge :D

[eaglezero6205 10]

its OK. Arma2 Vehicles should all have a bumper stciker that says I brake for rabbits. LOL

[humvee28 10]

I´ve made a Ticket on DH about that Sort of Behaviour for a while. Feel free to vote. :)

https://dev-heaven.net/issues/25642

[nettrucker 142]

Voted on CTI on both links the Ai driving is newly flawed. I hope some more people will vote to raise it to priority status for the next upcoming betas.

Edited January 9, 2012 by nettrucker

[cabby77 0]

CIT#How-to-report-a-bug

While I support the idea of reporting bugs through DevHeaven, can't one start a conversation here without someone posting that "How-to-report-a-bug"?

The AI-driving/pathfinding issue has been around since Arma2 was released (even before that). Unless BIS devs prefer to drive their own cars like Stevie Wonder, they should be aware of the obvious problem without waiting for someone to post a ticket about it. No offence to you PvPscene..

[.kju 3244]

You need to provide simple repro missions as much as possible..

[old_painless 182]

Unless BIS devs prefer to drive their own cars like Stevie Wonder, they should be aware of the obvious problem without waiting for someone to post a ticket about it

I perfectly follow your reasoning, anyone can quickly convince themselves that driving is flawed. Only thing is that by having tickets with a repro mission, the developers have a perfect laboratory setting for seeing effects from code changes. That's why they ask for them.

Then why do they not build the tests themselves, you might ask. Well, as developer you always prefer to have the customers view on what needs fixing, that is actually quite logical if you think it through. Plus the multitude of scenes (Desert, forest, sloped hills, convoys etc.) that we as users can cover and make tests for is much more than what the developers would be able to come up with.

[sakura_chan 9]

Does anyone know of SakuraChan's AI Driving Fix mod is still useful with the 1.60 patch?

I don't think it is, BI changed some stuff with the vehicles that changed its behaviour. I have been working on a new version, with great success. Its hard to find the right balance of speed and turning accuracy though. I had one setup where the vehicles didn't even slow down for 90 degree turns, but they also wiped out any fences or signs within a few feet of the road. Another version reduced their turning radius, so they could be much more maneuverable, but when used by the player the vehicle handled like a drift car. I also had a version where they could actually maintain speed in formation and turn slowly but without error. Its all about finding the balance. I was also playing around with the animal AI, I modified the scripts to tell rabbits and other animals to stay off roads, but it caused a mismatched FSM error whenever I tried to load a saved game that was saved without the mod.

Edited January 11, 2012 by Sakura_Chan

[metalcraze 290]

Isn't it possible to determine if the human is a driver and not apply changes?