Can I stop the AI from cheating?

[thecoolsideofthepillow 22]

This game is great!

That is what I would be saying if the AI wasn't such a cheating bastard, anyway. There are some big issues with the AI in this game, especially for how real the game is trying to be.

• AI sees/fires through foliage
  
• AI can spot and target through solid geometry like mountains and buildings.
  
• AI can see in the dark, even without NVGs
  

These are very frustrating things to encounter. Having my own unit call out an ENEMY MAN, 200M WEST OF US, turn to look and see nothing but shrubs and trees even in Recruit difficulty where everything has a WHITE, RED or GREEN dot to identify the target, only to receive artillery or machinegun fire to my face and chest.

Or to be stalking through a village in the dead of night through solid blackness, get killed, switch to another unit who has killed the enemy, search the body and find that the enemy had no night-vision or flashlight.

Or, like what happened last night to prompt this post, somehow being targeted (as well as targeting the AI myself) on the other side of a freakin' huge mountain! My character said "UNKNOWN MAN, WAY IN FRONT OF US" so I stop, look see nothing, wait a bit and still see nothing until it changed to "ENEMY MAN, WAY IN FRONT OF US." So I open the map to find a whole group of red dots on the other side of the mountain (not at the top, not in a tree line in front, BEHIND THE DAMN THING) all pointed at me and coming toward me.

I know I should probably get the expansion so I can actually experience this game online (got just ARMA 2 well after the MP had pretty much died) but I really want to like the SP game, as many of the missions could be damn fun if the AI wasn't such a bull♥♥♥♥ hack.

TL;DR - Is there any mods out there that make the AI unable to see through conditions that a human player would not be able to see through?

[ProfTournesol 956]

This subject was treated several times, and no, the AI isn't cheating, it has been proven several times. The most recent problem IIRC was the "AI can see through forrest" thingy. You just need some more patience to learn how to play and survive.

[maturin 12]

AI does not see through foliage, but the shape of a tree is slightly different for you than for him. So sometimes they will see you through tree leaves on the edge of a canopy. Bushes, however, are extremely accurate and always good concealment.

Obviously they will shoot through leaves. I do.

AI CANNOT spot you through solid geometry. Like ever. If you are in CQB or a firefight and are hiding behind a house, you are very safe. They aren't ever going to cheat and kill you.

There MAY be OCCASIONAL glitches in the earlier phase of AI spotting, where they use probability and other factors to acquire targets. Sometimes the AI gets glimpses of hidden units, but not detailed, real-time information.

And bear in mind that when you think they are cheating, they may actually be receiving silent information via radio from friendly squads that have eyes on.

The AI cannot see in the dark. Of course, they have scripts instead of eyes and do not treat the blackness quite the same as you do. But take it from me, they see much worse at night, except at point-blank range.

If you don't shoot or walk right in front of them, you will see in the dark much better than they do. I guarantee it.

In conclusion, most mods make the AI better at spotting, not worse, because they are numb as a post in most situations. I'm telling you all this as someone who has played the game for hundreds of hours over three years, extensively tested the AI to find out how they really work (I was once of your opinion), and spent plenty of time criticizing the game. But you can't criticize until you learn the facts. My completely non-judgmental or condescending advice for you is to learn how to play the game. ArmA's 3D environment is incredibly disorienting, and the AI are mysterious beasts. Only one case in a hundred are they actually doing something that could be described as cheating. They rely on their two senses of sight and hearing, just like you.

[no use for a name 0]

The AI may not "see" thru foliage; but they sure as hell still blind-fire very accurately thru it. Try changing their accuracy in the Arma2.cfg, so they might still fire but won't be as accurate.

[metalcraze 290]

It isn't hard to accurately blind fire through the foliage. It isn't like the bush is 100m wide. And if you are just running the AI assumes you are moving with the same speed behind bushes and trees like you did before that. It's logical.

AI also does fire through walls if it thinks you are there (again, through a mere prediction). What's wrong with that? I had my AI MGs (M240s in fact) blindfiring at a squad that ran behind concrete wall on Thirsk, killing one dude through it. I found it to be really cool.

If you can fire through bushes and walls and it isn't cheating - then why AI doing the same is considered cheating?

[NoRailgunner 0]

Well sometimes the default AI is somewhat strange - they can't spot a tank driving in clear LOS but are able to spot/hit someone through foliage. AI is still able to stand in a middle of a arty/mortar barrage and fire + kill someone with highest precision. With fog/rain the AI can highly "predict" enemy/friendly units at distances where the player can't see a thing. There is still a lot to do before one can say that AI is able to mimikry a human in every situation. Just try to change some difficulty settings option menu and/or use latest "ASR AI skill" addon.

[metalcraze 290]

@NoRailgunner: please tell me which version of a game you are playing because in my ArmA2 OA 1.60 with ACE and latest ASR AI (and without them) the AI is often blind and deaf and can't shoot precisely.

Unless I put 8 of them against 1 of me. Sure 1 of them is bound to spot me and one of 40 bullets they send after me is bound to hit me.

Just look at those damn AI cheatorz in this runthrough

Edited May 27, 2012 by metalcraze

[NoRailgunner 0]

Try it with default aka vanilla AI + default difficult settings - that is what most if not all new players of A2OA experience playing the game for the first time/days.... Situation with AI is still far from great for someone who is new into Armaverse and who likes to see the difference between "dumb" bots and "glorious" Arma (BIS) AI. Pilot AI are still crashing and driver AI especially in convoys with more than 2-3 vehicles are subpar.... ;)

[metalcraze 290]

Hey I'm not denying that. I'm not playing with AI planes and convoys for a long time now.

But claims that AI sees something too well / has superhuman reactions are myth - as seen in that Celery's video up above.

[gunso 10]

1. Use hardcover, bushes are softcover. only good for concealment.

2. Shoot and relocate - the vid shows it nicely (rewatching some rambo movies might help too XD)

3. Flanking, sniper overwatch and etc. Good strategy to increase your survival rate.

4. The enemy also have safe, aware, danger mode. Look at their behavior, while they are alert dont try to cross infront of them.

5. Fire discipline, tell your AI to hold fire while moving into position. Use 1 AI as scout and sent them ahead to alert you of enemy patrols.

6. Intel - gather the positions of the enemy then plan your moves. Ambush, taking out high priority units like officer, tanks, snipers and etc.

7. Line Of Sight - Yes lying prone on top of the hill is nice since you can see all the enemy but all of them can also see you including that bad ass looking AA gun.

8. Dont play peek a boo with the enemy once they see you, forget all those COD type of gameplay. If i spot something moving i would have my gun aimed at that location waiting for it to appear again.

9. Confuse the enemy - Let 1 of your AI be a decoy and move in while all the enemy is concentrating on him

[jblackrupert 14]

AI seeing prefectly in the dark, through hills, trees and AI sniper AK's is not a myth.

It doesn't happen all the time but it does happen.

The flipside of the coin is they can at times be Deaf, dumb and blind.

[ProfTournesol 956]

AI seeing prefectly in the dark, through hills, trees and AI sniper AK's is not a myth.

It doesn't happen all the time but it does happen.

The flipside of the coin is they can at times be Deaf, dumb and blind.

Never experienced this, must be CPU overload IMO.

[metalcraze 290]

AI seeing prefectly in the dark, through hills, trees and AI sniper AK's is not a myth.

It is a myth. Somehow there were several proofs that it is a myth but no proof of the contrary.

Just one of them - here's me walking into AI who is facing me at night

I was like 10m away from him and he didn't see me - which is actually a bad performance on AI side during a starry cloudless night.

If even a single AI by some chance happened to be so omnipotent a firefight would end in seconds and they wouldn't be blowing half of their ammo into nothingness. So far I haven't noticed this a single time.

Edited May 31, 2012 by metalcraze

[metalcraze 290]

I decided to test the AI and the grass.

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It also shows how AI tries to guesstimate the position of enemy. Although the enemies are right in between two points of AI's estimation.

The enemy AI group also didn't notice the guy in the grass.

[mrjorma67 10]

they have done that multiple times

[Mirek 166]

AI in all Arma games Is blind deaf and stupid. Its only advantage is that thay can shoot very accurately if you set its skills to max.

But yeah when i was complete noob in arma games i allso had an impression that AI is cheating. But it was all my retarded tactic, not the AI cheats.

Few points:

- Grass is not a good hiding place, especially if you are on slope, or if AI has higher ground.

- Bushes are not a good cover.

- AI can see you behind tree if you ar not all covered by the tree, players can sometimes see your shadow, dont know if AI can too.

- If you shoot unsilenced weapon everione will know where you are.

- If you shoot in at night in open field everyone will see your muzzleflash.

- If you use tracers, well? just dont use them if you want to stay hidden.

- Ai can hear you speaking, giving commands, etc.

- if AI has NVG turn off your laser.