Will AI in ArmA 3 Be Expanded?

[phronk 896]

If possible, I'd like a Bohemia Interactive employee reveal some details or at the very least assure us that the A.I. in ArmA 3 will be expanded upon. An answer on this forum, in an interview, or even at an interview at E3 would be really nice! :cool:

With that said, it is obvious that there is a lot still lacking from the A.I., primarily due to the game still being in Alpha phase and some A.I. content is hardly (if at all) implemented into the game, such as infantry breaching buildings and whatnot. If I need to clarify what I mean exactly by "expanding" the A.I. in the game, I not only mean improve upon which is already in the game (which I already know will come in time), but also, will the developers of ArmA 3 work on making A.I. infantry, vehicles, etc. capable of more? Perhaps even allowing them to do complex tasks?

Here are some examples of which I have in mind for "expanding" the A.I.:

1. A.I. Infantry fire-team/squad will stack up behind each other, breach door with a flashbang (if implemented), and enter after it goes off, clearing all rooms or all rooms in their pathway intelligently.

2. A.I. Infantry will mid-air 'disembark' air vehicle mid-air at certain safe heights when over water for special forces/navy missions or whatever (I know this is doable via scripts currently, but would be nice if it was more of an accessible task for AI/mission makers ;) )

3. A.I. Infantry will pop smoke at necessary times to cover movements, healing self/others, dragging teammates, etc.

4. A.I. Infantry will drag/carry wounded to a medic, to a covered position, into a transport vehicle cargo seat (not pilot or co-pilot obviously), etc.

5. A.I. Vehicle will pop countermeasures such as flares or smokescreen to counter missile locks/to provide cover

6. A.I. Attack Helicopters may try to engage targets from afar at an almost halted speed and stable altitude, instead of swooping in like they're a jet

7. A.I. Infantry can be ordered by a Team Leader/Squad Leader to pop smoke in a designated location

8. A.I. Infantry in 'Stealth' behavior will not open fire or engage targets unless fired upon

9. A.I. Infantry will run for cover when being shot at/suppressed (instead of just standing there or going prone)

10. A.I. Infantry is unable to see hostiles through terrain, rocks, walls, tall grass, or trees. If fired upon through said object, hostile may fire a few bursts to suppress whatever was shooting at him

11. A.I. Infantry Team Leader/Squad Leader may assign specific roles to squad members (such as assigning marksman or LMG to provide overwatch at X location to watch Y location/direction)

I am not demanding that the above list of expanded A.I. ideas must be implemented. I am just giving examples of what I might consider expanding the A.I. for ArmA 3. I'd be very appreciative if this could be answered (in details maybe? :o ) by a developer somewhere. One of the greatest things about this game, in my opinion, is the potential that the A.I. has in this sort of game. Not only the potential of what the A.I. can do, but also what the A.I. can do in custom-made missions!

Thank you! <3

~ Phronk

Edited June 9, 2013 by Phronk
Realized this post is in wrong area. Mod please move thread <3

[Masharra 10]

#8 has been discussed already.

#1 is relatively impossible as the game still quite "clunky". The game is not at rvs or swat level no matter how hard one wants to believe that the new speed and fancy animations change things.

#10 is questionable for walls, tall grass, or trees. Ai in arma 2 already do as you describe.

#3 is done in arma 2 already...

#6 I believe is done already, atleast the Hind in my missions will not swoop unless needed to.

#9 already done

Edited June 9, 2013 by Masharra

[instagoat 133]

If the consensus is still where it was at GC 2012, no major changes or additions to the AI will happen.

Their priority was to get the AI as it is working in an acceptable manner, and I doubt that priority has been altered.

Btw, 11 is already ingame. Select MG, assign overwatch direction and tell him to adopt the stance you want him to take. Presto! Problem is you cannot unassign a watched direction.

[Insanatrix 0]

If the consensus is still where it was at GC 2012, no major changes or additions to the AI will happen.

Their priority was to get the AI as it is working in an acceptable manner, and I doubt that priority has been altered.

Btw, 11 is already ingame. Select MG, assign overwatch direction and tell him to adopt the stance you want him to take. Presto! Problem is you cannot unassign a watched direction.

I think if you give him a move command or tell him to return to formation he stops watching the assigned direction.

[chrisb 196]

Most all of what you would like to see is already available in A2, mostly in mod form. BIS are never going to do all these things as standard, the game is what you make of it.

At some stage in the future, most of what you list will be possible in A3, I’m fairly sure that this will be the case, however its going to be upto the player, via testing and experimenting, to find the best way to implement what they want to see (implement via mod, script or clever mission design, etc), to make this happen for them.

(In the answers I have given a ‘see vid example’ its via the ‘smart ai’ in my sig)

Anyway, answering using A2 as an example, because it will happen in A3 later:

1. A.I. Infantry fire-team/squad will stack up behind each other, breach door with a flashbang (if implemented), and enter after it goes off, clearing all rooms or all rooms in their pathway intelligently.

1/ As said already, is probably never going to happen the way most of us would like to see it. However maybe a mod/addon maker will try to go someway towards it, who knows, they have with breaching already.

But the ai do use buildings and engage from within buildings using correct stances etc, and reasonably well, for this game anyway (example in vids)

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2. A.I. Infantry will mid-air 'disembark' air vehicle mid-air at certain safe heights when over water for special forces/navy missions or whatever (I know this is doable via scripts currently, but would be nice if it was more of an accessible task for AI/mission makers ;) )

2/ This would be great as a module or something rather than a script, very possible to do now, but could be easier.

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3. A.I. Infantry will pop smoke at necessary times to cover movements, healing self/others, dragging teammates, etc.

3/ They do this already, if modded they do it very well. Don't forget, there should always be a medic in your and other squads (example in vids)

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4. A.I. Infantry will drag/carry wounded to a medic, to a covered position, into a transport vehicle cargo seat (not pilot or co-pilot obviously), etc.

4/ They do this already, again if modded they are pretty good at it. They will cover whilst a unit drags the injured into cover inc buildings etc. (example in vids)

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5. A.I. Vehicle will pop countermeasures such as flares or smokescreen to counter missile locks/to provide cover

5/ They do this in a couple of mods quite effectively already.

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6. A.I. Attack Helicopters may try to engage targets from afar at an almost halted speed and stable altitude, instead of swooping in like they're a jet

6/ They do this already, but its down to the ai pilot, of course seeing this happen is not easy unless you follow a heli around.

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7. A.I. Infantry can be ordered by a Team Leader/Squad Leader to pop smoke in a designated location

7/ Popping smoke in a designated area, well ai do use grenades very well inc smoke grenades, again if modded its better, they tend to use smoke when needed (again example in vids)

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8. A.I. Infantry in 'Stealth' behavior will not open fire or engage targets unless fired upon

8/ This is already in the game, either via ordering your squad in-game, or in the editor during mission build via the waypoint instructions. Also some very simple script commands can be used, but not really necessary.

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9. A.I. Infantry will run for cover when being shot at/suppressed (instead of just standing there or going prone)

9/ The ai are really good at taking cover using great tactic’s of cover and move. Again, unfortunately, only in modded mode. The A3 concept of ai taking cover is not great. (again see vids for modded version example)

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10. A.I. Infantry is unable to see hostiles through terrain, rocks, walls, tall grass, or trees. If fired upon through said object, hostile may fire a few bursts to suppress whatever was shooting at him

10/ Well, if by seeing through things you mean he shoots you having tracked your movement.. The ai has to be made to do, as near as pos what it can be, like a human. So if a human see’s a unit running for cover behind a wall, or just running behind something during an engagement, our natural reaction is to see if they keep running, so we keep an eye on the other end of the item they were running behind. Of course this isn’t always the case that they reappear, but they are giving ai a human reaction to that behaviour the best way they can ‘tracking’. Best way to see this is have target markers enabled in A2, when a target is put up for you it will have a red reticule type marker put over the enemy unit, if the unit runs behind a wall the marker will travel along the wall, but the owner may not reappear at the other end, but the marker keeps moving, that’s the tracking mechanics of the game, its not an advantage as the owner of the marker may not follow what the marker does. The fact it travels along and the owner doesn’t reappear, simply means the ai are better than we think, but it tracks as a standard in the game mechnics. Without that mechanic the game would be really bad, so we need it, it’s a good thing. They don’t see through walls etc (again see vids for example)

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11. A.I. Infantry Team Leader/Squad Leader may assign specific roles to squad members (such as assigning marksman or LMG to provide overwatch at X location to watch Y location/direction)

11/ Already in.

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As I said, all the examples are in A2, thats because A3 is a baby at the moment and it takes time to get these things into game (mod wise), especially as most all of it will not be standard.

Indeed its very interesting to see what ai can actually do, with the right mix of mod/addons, they are really very good at much of what you want to see, only in A2, at the mo. Just have to find it and test/experiment to get what you want, will be the same for A3...:)

[rasdenfasden 12]

For now I think the priority with AI should be on giving them better realistic gunplay (leading shots, faster target acquisition, more varying accuracy) and getting the spotting stuff right.

[kremator 1064]

I think my main problem with AI is in them NOT looking the right way towards the threat. Of course there is an issue with them spotting you, but then turning the gun slowly toward the target. What WOULD be better is for them to spot you slowly then bring the gun to bear rapidly!

[metalcraze 290]

They seem to have turn speed limit or something. Just try running in one direction, then into the other - your AI teammates will just stop, will slooooowwwwly rotate in one place till they face the new direction and then move.

[toiletguy 1]

The AI in this game is the only AI in the simulation series where you could just run around them without getting killed. lol

[bad benson 1733]

They seem to have turn speed limit or something. Just try running in one direction, then into the other - your AI teammates will just stop, will slooooowwwwly rotate in one place till they face the new direction and then move.

yea that has been always like that i think. my theory is that the actual code would make them just snap onto your head and kill you. i think BI uses animation stuff like that and general randomness to make them more human and less aimbot-ish. another example is the way they miss their first shot and then almost always headshot you with their second shot from long distances.

sadly that is not a good solution. at least how they do it.

for me personally it would already be a big step forward if they would swap the following two behaviours.

1. AI turns very slowly if you are close to them.

2. AI insta aims on your head, if you are very far away.

that would make close range more thrilling and long range less robot like.

but i think that's exactly what i described at work. if you think about it...on a long distance a slow turn has less impact because the angle you are in compared to them will change very slowly. very close it will change very quick. so by simply making them turn slow to hide the fact that they are just aimbots BI uses a method that can never work in both situations.

i hope they realize that and remove the turn speed limit (except for prone) and use dispersion and recoil instead. i'm slowly (after the 4th incarnation of the game) getting tired of seeing this...

[phronk 896]

I am aware that there are mods for ArmA 2 which drastically improve the A.I. in many ways. I am just curious if the developers behind the game are considering doing said improvements, instead of relying on the modding community to fix/improve it, again.

Appreciate the feedback though! :D

[chrisb 196]

I am just curious if the developers behind the game are considering doing said improvements,

Unlikely.;).