Infuriating AI behavior when asked to board chopper when under fire.

[Wobble 1]

So I set up a little hit and run mission, the basic gist being piss off and kill as many OPfor as possible and still escape.. Escape being getting picked up by chopper at what ends up being a very hot LZ..

Myself plus 4 squaddies, one of which is a pilot in the chopper.

I instruct the chopper to the LZ and then select the rest of the squad and tell them to board chopper (anywhere)

the chopper comes down and one maybe two get on.. but on or two keep attacking the MASSIVE OP FOR that is getting ever closer. If you order them to board again, they run towards the chopper, stop, turn around and start attacking again If I tell them to hold fire, they still do the same thing, but don't shoot, just stand there till killed.

Nothing I say or do will get all these morons on the chopper, they will sit there and take pot shots until they are killed.. Ive run the mission 5 times now and every time at least one refuses to board when under fire.

And better yet, apparently there is a nice glitch too, if someone dies while under command to board the chopper, the chopper pilot will then never take off, as he is still waiting for the now dead soldier to board it, so now we are all killed sitting in the chopper on the ground.

So, whats the trick to make the ignorant AI get on the damn helicopter while under fire.. and do so in a timely manner?

This would be a rather fun mission if it wasn't for this crap.

[maturin 12]

Try putting them in column formation.

[twisted 128]

you make a good point - somehow AI need to react to a siltation and be more suited to it. unless BIS does it it might be up to you as the mission maker to perhaps code an appropriate reaction for them yourself for this particular situation.

[ProfTournesol 956]

I thought this particular behaviour while boarding a vehicle under fire had been corrected ?

[metalcraze 290]

Are you running OA with 1.60 patch?

[max power 21]

I think formerly, when the gunner positions were occupied, the doors were somehow blocked, preventing anyone from entering or exiting some vehicles. Try telling them to get in cargo.

[Wobble 1]

Ok, tried a few different things.

It appears the root of the problem is that the AI, no matter what the order, will stop and call out contacts if it detects them. You tell them to MOVE somewhere, and if there is no enemy around they will move in a somewhat prompt fashion to wherever you tell them, but if there are enemies around, they will stop moving every time they see someone in order to call them out. Apparently they are programmed to stop and face whatever they are calling out. So in this case with literally dozens of enemy AI coming, they are constantly stopping and calling out new contacts. So when they get to the chopper, they cannot board until they finish calling out every contact they see.. and if a new one comes into view while they are running to the chopper to board, they stop, call the contact out, run AWAY from the chopper and then begin the boarding process again. The ultimate problem is the closer the enemy gets and the more important the need to get the hell out of dodge, the slower and more unresponsive they become, because the act of calling out contacts supersede any other action or any other order.

There needs to be a command to IGNORE hostiles or something to that effect, something to make them stop calling out contacts and just do what I tell them.

either that or just make an override command, where the AI does what you say, regardless of its "opinion" on the matter.

Edited February 5, 2012 by Wobble

[Kamakazi 11]

not sure if this will work for you - but this command has helped make the Ai focus on the task in hand for me

http://community.bistudio.com/wiki/disableAI

"AUTOTARGET" - prevent the unit from assigning a target independently and watching unknown objects

maybe with

"TARGET" - stop the unit to watch the assigned target

good luck

[Wobble 1]

I think You may be on to something, I'm kinda rusty on this through, dont remember how to set it.

[Kamakazi 11]

i usualy add something like

_this disableAI "TARGET"; UNIT_NAME disableAI "AUTOTARGET";

init line, activation box of trigger/ waypoint -

milage will vary, but this before a helicopter pilot arrives at an unload waypoint = magic

Your making the mission so must dictate the timing to suit your demands

remember to Enable it again afterwards .....

http://community.bistudio.com/wiki/enableAI

[msy 22]

When in danger mode, AI always forgets to retreat. No matter you order "no target" "hold fire" and "disengage" "keep formation" to them, they still stick there to fire and be killed.

One simplest demo mission: see what will happen in CombinedArms of CWR2 when the HQ order your squard to retreat in CO 1.60.

I think there should be an order that can force AI to quickly follow you, no matter what happend to them.

---------- Post added at 03:26 PM ---------- Previous post was at 03:21 PM ----------

I think formerly, when the gunner positions were occupied, the doors were somehow blocked, preventing anyone from entering or exiting some vehicles. Try telling them to get in cargo.

Try playing CombinedArms of CWR2 in CO 1.60, your squard is just ordered to retreat, but the AIs always want to kill to die. Every time I have to forget my squard and run to the safe position myself to end the mission, but others are almost dead because they didn't run back!

[max power 21]

Try playing CombinedArms of CWR2 in CO 1.60, your squard is just ordered to retreat, but the AIs always want to kill to die. Every time I have to forget my squard and run to the safe position myself to end the mission, but others are almost dead because they didn't run back!

Okay, I get that you're saying that there is a retreat bug, but I'm not sure how that relates to the bug that I was offering as a possible cause. I'm not so married to it that you need to convince me that your bug is a more likely candidate ^_^

[WLDELJ 1]

It seems like nearly everyone who has ever even heard of Arma 2 knows about the ridiculous (infuriating, discouraging, gut wrenching, pain inducing, etc.) helicopter AI issues. Why can't BIS fix them? Even if they just created a scripting command to make a unit ignore enemy AI (like someone suggested earlier in this post, a wonderful idea, btw), then it would make a tremendous difference. I set out to create a mission that highly involved insertion under fire, being totally unaware of the horrendous helicopter glitches. My idea was originally going to be a multiplayer mission between two company size air cavalry units one player per team would be the captain, and each platoon leader would be a player, each company would have six helicopters moving in teams of three that would be able to transport one platoon per helicopter team, the captain may or may not have a heli for his HQ element. Needless to say, this idea is completely retarded and likely impossible under these circumstances. The mission that I was developing as a test concept for this mission has now become a full-blown campaign in a quest to find out how to fix the helicopter AI and bring this information to the world. I may end up having to just litter the map with invisible heli pads, which would limit the chances for risky tactical insertions by my platoons on the map, I really don't want to, though.... I have no useful information to give, except that I can tell you that most of the suggested methods only moderately ease the pain of this problem. Keep searching and let me know if you run across something that helps, I will be sure to do the same for the poster and for all of you. I tried the disableAI, it didn't seem to alter their behavior, have I done something wrong? There are no save points in the mission or anything like that.

UPDATE: I am going to give these scripts a try:

http://forums.bistudio.com/showthread.php?106653-Chopper-aerial-taxi-script

http://forums.bistudio.com/showthread.php?108862-Helicopter-insertion-on-request

Edited April 12, 2012 by WLDELJ
Update

[Muerte LOL 10]

You might try telling them to hold fire and command them to safe. Not at the game right now so I can't tell you which numbers it is but this should make them ignore the enemy. ~ (all), combat mode, safe.

[AndrewsRG 22]

I love the name of this thread.

I enjoy making a realistic looking videos where the guys spin 360 on their heel. The game just needs more basic transition animations I guess.