AI accuracy test

[afp 1]

In order to check the AI accuracy I made a small mission, the player facing AI having skill 0.5, at about 300m distance, on regular difficulty. On this difficulty (which shouldn't count very much as the two enemies are facing each other), I assumed that with the given skill, I should be able to shoot him pretty much as fast as he can shoot me. Unfortunatelly things are highly unbalanaced by default, so you need to edit .arma3profile file to tune down the AI accuracy. You can test yourself and see how fast the AI can kill you also how fast can you shoot him down.

How a balanced AI should be tuned:

Tests should be performed with enemy skill at 0.5, on regular/veteran (middle of the difficulty). With this skill, an enemy having the accuracy of 0.5 should be able to hit you pretty much with the same rate you hit him (or a bit less), at 3-400 m distance, like 1 hit at 2 bullets. This will allow a flexibility in setting difficulty and avoid incredible AI accuracy. With the enemy skill of 0.1 and accuracy of 0.1, they should be able to hit like 1 of 10 bullets, with skill 0.9 and accuracy 0.9 the percent should be like 9 /10. The attached test mission is a good way to study these things.

CONCLUSION: here is a decent configuration to play with:

enemy skill (in mission editor): 0.5

difficulty (in menu->options>game->difficulty): "regular" (this allows more flexible settings then "veteran", you can change them later)

enemy skill (in menu->options->game->enemy skill slider): 0.5

enemy accuracy (.arma3profile file->"regular" section ->precisionEnemy): 0.20

If you need to make them more or less accurate, only go to the last one, (.arma3profile file) and change it up or down a bit (restart needed). Do not use "super AI", that will maximize their turn speed, spot distance, endurance and other parameters making them unrealistic.

also this: http://forums.bistudio.com/showthread.php?158241-Tutorial-Gameplay-difficulty

Edited July 1, 2013 by afp

[TSAndrey 1]

I still can't believe that AI can spot me in a few seconds as a ghillie 500m away on a hill, and then even manage to shoot me a bit later with reflex sights!

[afp 1]

Yep, perform your own tests, things are unbalanced.

EDIT: It seems I made a mistake, the slider in settings do not affect accuracy directly but the whole enemy skill (not sure why, as long you already set the skill in mission editor). Also, there is no slider in UI to set the accuracy...

So you need to go to the arma3.profile file and edit the "regular" section like this:

class regular

{

class Flags

{

....

};

skillFriendly=0.7;

skillEnemy=0.5

precisionFriendly=0.5;

precisionEnemy=0.2;

};

This will tune down the accuracy of the AI without affecting other skills.

Edited June 29, 2013 by afp

[papanowel 120]

Yep, perform your own tests, things are unbalanced.

I'm sure Bis is working on it and will give us something really cool during the beta.

Vanilla AI are way too good.

[afp 1]

Ok, so here is a decent configuration to play with:

difficulty (in menu->options>game->difficulty): regular

enemy skill (in mission design editor): 0.5

enemy skill (in menu->options->game->enemy skill slider): 0.5

enemy accuracy (in .arma3profile file, "regular" section): 0.20

If you need to make them more or less accurate, only go to the last one, (.arma3profile file) and change it up or down a bit. Do not use "super AI", that will maximize their turn speed, spot distance, endurance and other paramters making them unrealistic.

Edited June 29, 2013 by afp

[instagoat 133]

My config is skill 0.85 for both, and accuracy of 0.25, and at those settings fights are getting way too easy, oftentimes. Only when the enemy has a massive advantage in numbers and position (such as the infantry showcase) does it get challenging and/or unfair.

[afp 1]

So maybe an accuracy of 0.3 is better? The small difference in skill may not make a huge difference, I guess its the accuracy.

[Tyl3r99 41]

bis should read this

[dmarkwick 261]

Also it seems to depend on the environment. For example, Falluja seems to suit the AI as they can flank effectively because of the buildings. I'm always getting spanked in that map.

But yeah, I need to turn down the accuracy to 0.3 at least to have any kind of chance.

[oukej 2911]

bis should read this

We do ;)

[Gera_CCT 12]

The only problem for me if their accuracy. Too precise even in medium distances. I never lower this settings in ArmA 2, but now i have to.

[smacker909 3]

I thought precisionEnemy and precisionFriendly in profile had no effect. Was this fixed?

[down8 30]

I thought precisionEnemy and precisionFriendly in profile had no effect. Was this fixed?

I am curious too. Some months ago and in Arma 2 those two variables in config file were doing nothing at all.

[Ash712 1]

This has really been my only issue with ArmA in general over the years...

An enemy can 1 shot you from 800m+ away with a scope-less weapon even if you are in good cover...

I've even been 1 shot'd out of a helicopter at a high speed/altitude by an enemy on the ground with a rifle...simply impossible!

Time to tone down these "super soldiers"...unless they are supposed to be Terminators? lol! ;)

[griffz 1]

my advice, anything higher than 0.35 for aimingaccuracy is no fun anymore.

Maybe it's set for swat-style mission. but for a large scale game, i choose one third .

[smacker909 3]

I don't think the precision settings work. They combined the precision with skill setting.

[Smurf 12]

I always lower their precision to around .4 or .3, since OFP.

I don't know why we don't have a slider for that on the options and even worst, why default values are so high (since ever)? That bad impression of newcomers that AI is "cheating" is highly related to that.

Anyway, Task Force Balance should be working and they even hired a guy just to do that.

[froggyluv 2136]

The only problem for me if their accuracy. Too precise even in medium distances. I never lower this settings in ArmA 2, but now i have to.

This coupled with their uncanny turn speed to your exact direction. Firing from a hill, near or behind foliage at night from 150m out, they should have to do a complex LOS check and if they don't (shouldn't!) spot you in an instant they should be running for cover. That's how humans generally react.

Oh how I wish they could rip that turn speed and exact orientation from mid-range fighting and graft it to CQB.....:pray:

[-Coulum- 35]

I play with skill set to 1 in the options and then usually tweak their aiming accuracy to .1 - .2 depending on what type of enemy I want to fight. I also tweak spotting time to .05. I actually find that its the ai's quick spotting, especially after firing or hitting is the real problem though. I find it impossible to shoot from a concealed position because they see you so damn fast. They should eventually see me, but when I open from an ambush position 300m away in an area dense with foliage, It should take longer than 5 seconds for me to be seen and have accurate fire from everyone in the squad landing all around me and killing me in seconds at the higher skill levels.

[Tyl3r99 41]

:) hehehe

[afp 1]

I made some tutorial, both for server administrators or single players so everybody can understand how things work and what can be done, regarding difficulty. Most of the internet servers are going with the default values, the AI is insane accurate.

http://forums.bistudio.com/showthread.php?158241-Tutorial-Gameplay-difficulty

Edited July 1, 2013 by afp

[tortuosit 486]

Most of the internet servers are going with the default values, the AI is insane accurate.

That's why good defaults are so important. Also, many mission creators leave default AI values. I hope one day the setSkill-Array will be available via Editor UI.

The other bad side of the AI is that you can dance around them, as they turn slow and like robots.

[tremanarch 6]

one problem is also the strange behaviour when being close to them.

Why do they go prone and turn around so slowly?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ekRI_XOTmSw

or why dont they switch to pistol either (could have quicker turn speed with pistols also)

[afp 1]

The turn speed should be fixed. I can say that a very high turning speed makes them very lethal, especially in close combat, so it need to be adjused properly. For now I haven't notice big difference between AI skill 0.5 and AI skill 1.... they are slow anyway...

[kremator 1065]

Video is crazy. You need some captioning for the video ..."Duh where did he go - I know he is around here somewhere"

I hope Devs look at this and try to come up with a solution. Yes faster turning to acquire target (around 0.5 sec) but then a slower aim and fire (again 0.6 - 1.2secs)