My vehicle onboard AI is hilariously incompetent.

[Nails077 1]

Just kind of a funny story that serves as a good example at how silly the pathfinding problems can get.

This scenario starts with a full on beach assault. I send in everything I have. All the walruses go in first. Two of them have anti tank guns, and one of them is AA, and one has a repair gun. Immediately I take control of Manta 4 and have the other mantas assist me, and use them to cover the walruses from the air. All resistance on and near the beach is wiped out completely, and I send some mantas to rearm, while ordering the two anti tank walruses to head towards the next outpost, the AA being sent in soon after, and finally the repair walrus bringing up the rear. I switch focus to the mantas again, and take them towards the outpost to give cover from the air again.

This is when I notice that the only walrus that made it close to the outpost is the one with the repair gun and it is getting shot to pieces. I get there in time just to see it destroyed but not soon enough to do anything about it. Meanwhile further back I see the other 3 walruses being stuck on eachother. It appears the first one got confused which way to go on a straight road, and the other anti tank and anti air couldn't figure out how to go around it. Somehow though the repair walrus managed to get around that whole cluster and proceed to charge the outpost alone.

As I try to sort out the mess with the entangled walruses I leave control of the lead manta up to the AI for a few seconds, and almost immediately it starts to take damage. I switch back to it and it seems to have decided to engage a an enemy surrounded by heavy AA emplacements. I lose the manta before I can get it out of there, and order the rest of the mantas to return to the carrier, but they spend too much time circling a waypoint above the AA before heading towards the carrier and they all get shot down too.

With no air cover left I order the remaining walruses to return to the carrier as well to prepare another assault. One of them seems to have perticular problems following a road so I decide to pilot it back manually. As I get to open water I hear one walrus is under attack, and give the controls back to the AI and check the map. One walrus apparently decided that the best way back to the carrier was not to go straight back to the nearest beach, but through the entire island. It has waypoints set through every base on the island, off the beach on the opposite side, into the ocean there and then going around the entire island back to the carrier. I take manual control of it but it is too late, that walrus is also lost.

It was pretty infuriating trying to make any progress, but at the same time I had to laugh at how bad everything went.

[maddogx 13]

Yup, the AI path finding is painfully bad at times, but there are ways to avoid the situations that you described.

What I generally do is "chain" my Walruses together with assistance orders so that I only have to command one - generally the strongest anti-tank one. This way, the support vehicles always bring up the rear and don't go charging off on their own if the main combat Walruses get stuck.

When sending them across long distances, I also find it helpful to define some intermediate waypoints for them manually. It takes a tad longer, but at least its safer than letting them find their own paths.

[JuggernautOfWar 1]

Thank the gods this will all be fixed (supposedly) in the retail game.

[Antares 1]

Yeah, I chain all together when I approach the enemy. But all units are a bit weak when they encounter the enemy. (I mean the standard armor) The automatic aiming at AA/AT guns with mantas is bad. It leads to immediate destruction of my mantas. And the guns under fire, are not damaged progressively (from strong to weak to poor). The only thing I could do, was to take a plasma, a sufficient range and then aim good to take down the AA guns first and then take down the Anti-Walrus guns. And then bring the walrusses in, too build the command center anew, after I took down the command center with the plasma fired from one manta. Covering the walrusses with mantas was only effective, when I had cleaned up every thing around the area of the destroyed command center and the destroyed manta, walrusses garage. Incoming walrusses, or mantas, from other parts of the islands were destroyed for good. Of course the autoaim of the lasers were a help, but the plasmas have a higher range and therefore better for the weak armor of the mantas. The lasers on mantas I could use only for the Anti-walruss guns.

Edited August 8, 2012 by Antares
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[dram 14]

Hey guys, as I mentioned in another thread, we are working on fixing the AI issues. The pathfinding primarily is being improved. Sorry for the lack of updates, we've been real busy.

Take care,

Martin Melicharek

[gunso 10]

Maybe if the AI vehicle are given the ability to rotate on the spot, it will make them moves around better instead of painfully trying to reverse out of a tight spot.

I dont really mind if it's not realistic since it's just the AI driving it as long as it gets to the area asap.

[Tox_Laximus 1]

Maybe if the AI vehicle are given the ability to rotate on the spot, it will make them moves around better instead of painfully trying to reverse out of a tight spot.

I dont really mind if it's not realistic since it's just the AI driving it as long as it gets to the area asap.

Skid steering would not be unrealistic especially on grass or mud.