How good is the AI...?

[bugkill 7]

In my opinion, the AI needs a lot of work. It is the alpha, so I'm not too worried about it, but the AI seems to be very dumb in combat when using them in the editor. In the showcase, they seem to be pretty good, but I expected them to perform much better when you set up a mission in the editor. I had guys running past each other within 5-10 feet and not take a shot at times. Also, you will have the AT not engage vehicles when they are well within their sight and range of their weapon, so that needs work. Bottom line is that it is an alpha, so this type of stuff was expected, but I hope the final product is much better with respect to AI.

[xx_fr0st-w0lf_xx 10]

I don't know, some things are better, others sometimes seem worse. I remember shooting at a walking opfor and I was able to fire off 4 semi auto rounds at hi before e finally raised his weapon. I have also seen the ai (in my squad) refuse to follow any orders and just stand still. O ther times they are much better

[Drumheller 19]

In a word: fucking ridiculous.

I fear AI now.

[b00tsy 28]

The AI seems to use better cover now and they seem to be smarter and flank you more. I also notice that they still walk through walls with some buildings (shacks), instead of walking around the building they just go straight through the wall. Also they walk through doors without opening them. Overall they seem more nasty now.

[zatyr 11]

Me and a friend tried holding a building against the AI. While we watched the door the AI started popping up through the floor around us. :icon_rolleyes: Bugs aside the AI seems little different from Arma 2, they are faster and seem to flank more but they also make lots and lots of stupid decisions..

[metalcraze 290]

Despite some improvements the result is that AI is worse than the one in ArmA2 unfortunately. Let me clarify why.

While it seems to be somewhat better at shooting and moving around - it runs to the objective way too fast, often ignoring enemies and as a result getting itself killed.

This is especially well seen in Infantry Showcase on Veteran where enemy AI can't go lower than 0.7 and with friendly AI set to the max, 1.0 - friendly squad just gets utterly obliterated every time and often by the enemy AI that they leave untouched due to blindly running to the objective so fast.

I replayed mission 5 times - and every time result is the same. Friendly squad blindly rushes to the objective, enemies just shoot them in their backs. Everybody in a friendly squad dies.

OA AI is like a well of wisdom compared to this. There they will stick together, carefully cleaning enemies from max possible distance with their weapons and will advance when it's reasonably safe. The result is that their advance is slower - but they SURVIVE and WIN.

Edited March 6, 2013 by metalcraze

[johncage 30]

i noticed that too. i think it's a mission design problem. the ai should be set to danger. also the route is very dangerous, they're at the pit of a valley. i had to pick up the scoped weapon and kill the ai form a distance while sitting on top of a hill to save my teammates.

[old_painless 182]

Gents, good thread here. Haven't got the alpha yet (SSD in the mail somewhere), but we should remember to somehow convey problems to BI. The gut reaction of "I need my AI mods from A2" is understandable, however the alpha is intented also to let BI know about problems with the AI. They are not in freeze, ie. they will want to improve the game from alpha state to release state.

Use this: http://forums.bistudio.com/showthread.php?147532-How-to-Post-Arma3-Alpha-Feedback

Cheers,

OP

[metalcraze 290]

The pit of a valley is the correct spot actually since you want to avoid skylining yourself. And they do go into danger when they are attacked. The problem is that they just don't have patience. Friendly AI would've survived better if it took its time to just sit there for a little longer every time they deal with enemies.

But they are like "blam I killed one guy! nobody is shooting at us for 5 seconds? LET'S RUSH!" - and then, naturally, they run into the view of other enemies that came with that guy whom they haven't seen.

I know it's a result of what Jay Crowe explained as "AIs were moving too slow through Zargabad and we were like - let's change that, make them faster". But the thing is - that was the correct behavior. In urban environments you don't want to move faster. You want to move careful.

And yeah the mission design is a problem too but for other reasons. I don't want to piss into Van T' Land and Moricky's soup but they are pulling CoD-wannabe with this mission PMC DLC-style. Guys, please, don't do it in a main campaign.

Edited March 6, 2013 by metalcraze

[chrisb 196]

My initial feeling is ai have been leaned towards ‘fast action’ play. That’s not how I play A2, I don’t play the BIS campaigns so can’t say regards that, but looking more at ai behaviour in the Editor, that is what seems to be going on.

It should be about thinking and doing, not running and shooting, which is what it seems, at least to the ai, a little like at the moment. That’s a compromised area I think, there is a need for the game to appeal to new players, but the balance is easily tipped towards fast action quick game-play, which is far less satisfying in every way for me and other A2 player groups and SP. It could appeal to both, but it would require ai mod makers, because BIS would have to stand the middle ground game-play wise (ai in particular).

Throughout the series we have had great ai modders, they are very few now, I don’t use ASR-ai and my preferred ai mods were made by people who seem to have moved on, very talented people, they are going to be missed in A3, they are in A2. However, if the game appeals to more players, there may be mod makers out there that are as talented and are yet to come into the game, so ai has hope. For the players that use ASR-ai, there is probably little to worry about, it will probably be a future A3 mod.

Its just hard to tell, but its going to be interesting to see over the next year or two..

The series has turned a corner, thats for sure, but that has to be looked at as inevitable, it had to move a little towards the middle ground to appeal to more players, that’s understandable, doesn’t mean it cant be, as the series has been, a thoughtful game bordering on a real sim. Plus at the same time, a broader game to appeal to more players, which brings in the revenue more, via turn over of players. Provided the ai situation is sorted at some stage, probably has to be mod makers, as said, then the game has a great future and in-fact probably a series re-launch, in effect..

[Rak 0]

It's definitely better for me, in terms of behaving "non-robotic" unlike ArmA 2. They move around more fluidly, no more zig-zagging. They also seem to have problems with recoil so no more insta deaths.

It's definitely a great foundation and a big improvement over ArmA 2.

[legolasindar 3]

Short answer, bad.

The AI is one of the features that less has changed in the games. But is one the most important features, AI es critical for a correct experience of play, see enemys in ArmA2 is horrifying, i hope Bohemia imprive this in the ArmA3, games have GPU (graphics), PPU (physics), and need AIPPU (Artifical Intelligence).

[v8_laudi 1]

IMO the AI are pretty decent, haven't noticed anything out of wack yet.

[zimms 22]

There's no AI in those games.

Or do you mean the target dummies for SP?

[Blackhawk 0]

They detect you too easily, and are too accurate at long distances. They can also detect you underwater.

Other than that I was quite impressed.

[Nicholas 5]

They can't drive across bridges. :(

[Guest]

They can't drive across bridges. :(

This has been an issue since the very begining of the Armaverse in 2001, it was most obvious on Sahrani in Arma 1, but now they have made another island with bridges, I expected they would have fixed this.

I hope it does get addressed before final release!

:)

[ParaB 1]

Posting just so I can add pics in the next post.

Silly forum software...

---------- Post added at 15:52 ---------- Previous post was at 15:51 ----------

I posted this over at SimHQ, maybe some of you guys find it interesting, too.

We all know the ArmA AI always had the tendency to do something wonky every once in a while. But sometimes... well, just continue to read... ;)

I set up a simple mission, two infantry groups that move towards each other with "search&destroy" orders. No ingame orders were used, I mainly acted as observer.

BlueFor advances towards objective in staggered column formation.

http://www.abload.de/img/arma32013-03-0614-34-0ys83.jpg (435 kB)

Contact! The soldiers most distant from cover hit the dirt and open fire, the rest of the group races for (and actually into) the buildings.

http://www.abload.de/img/arma32013-03-0614-22-0cjrq.jpg (316 kB)

One soldier gets hit, and a smoke grenade is thrown towards the enemy. The whole group lays down heavy fire.

http://www.abload.de/img/arma32013-03-0614-23-eij8f.jpg (403 kB)

A medic runs to the wounded and starts providing 1st-aid, a team starts moving around the building on the right side of the road, several soldiers continue to pour massive fire towards the enemy.

http://www.abload.de/img/arma32013-03-0614-23-rikmz.jpg (388 kB)

On the left side of the road 2 soldiers advance from cover to cover, too. Situation is 3 men advancing on the right side, 2 on the left. medic is with the wounded, 2 guys a bit to the rear provide covering fire with grenade launchers.

http://www.abload.de/img/arma32013-03-0614-23-t7kir.jpg (475 kB)

Both teams left and right of the road continue to advance, single soldiers providing covering fire. Enemy group gets destroyed.

http://www.abload.de/img/arma32013-03-0614-24-8ikci.jpg (368 kB)

What other game manages this kind of AI action without heavy scripting? This was straight out of the infantry handbook.

Consider me seriously impressed.

[Foxhound4444 0]

Being a fan since the Flashpoint days when the AI could see you, fire at you, and kill you across the map through foliage, I believe ARMA3's AI has been a drastic improvement. The AI pathing is extraordinary in my view. They cover each other and move as a unit in a tactical fashion. I've noticed this when I was watching a firefight in a base. However, the only gripe i have is that sometimes I still get killed too easily across far distances...

[tremanarch 6]

today we attacked one Inf AI we were in a car with mounted gun.

The ai was so clever he kept running round a big rock he found and we had to follow him ;)

that was nice to see.

[ParaB 1]

Sorry for the multi post.

Edited March 6, 2013 by ParaBellum

[ProfTournesol 956]

today we attacked one Inf AI we were in a car with mounted gun.

The ai was so clever he kept running round a big rock he found and we had to follow him ;)

that was nice to see.

A well known indian tactic.

[OrdeaL 10]

Go here C:\Users\*your name*\Documents\Arma 3 Alpha - Other Profiles\*your profile name* and open your profile i.e. OrdeaL.Arma3AlphaProfile

and find precisionFriendly=0.74999989;

precisionEnemy=0.68000003;

and change to precisionFriendly=0.3;

precisionEnemy=0.3

and have fun with decent ai, that doesnt aim bot.

Also dont change the skill setting bar in-game after setting the precision level or it will undo the changes.

[ParaB 1]

Sorry for the multi-post.

Edited March 6, 2013 by ParaBellum

[st!gar 3]

Both teams left and right of the road continue to advance, single soldiers providing covering fire. Enemy group gets destroyed.

Consider me seriously impressed.

You shouldn't be "seriously impressed" before you make sure and check what the enemy was doing the whole time. There must have been a reason they were defeated so decisively - they may have been doing something very wrong.