Bohemia, have you bothered at all with the AI in the last 3 months?

[GottyPlays 10]

AI return to formation.

Roger

10 seconds later

Negative

AI I swear you're not in danger here I'll put you in aware mode just to be sure. Now will you fucking regroup for fucks sake?

Roger

No can do.

*Kills myself*

AI is the bane of this game.

This pretty simply sum it up.

[froggyluv 2136]

AI return to formation.

Roger

10 seconds later

Negative

AI I swear you're not in danger here I'll put you in aware mode just to be sure. Now will you fucking regroup for fucks sake?

Roger

No can do.

*Kills myself*

AI is the bane of this game.

Haven't found this to be the case at all in 3 -reminds me of mid patch level Arma 2. Where is this happening? I've led my squad thru Agia hundreds of times and the only problem I get is them sometimes taking a really strange route. Although sometimes if a wounded one enters a house...I have to teamswitch or he'll never leave.

How big is the group your talking about and what part of map? Are any of them wounded?

[MadocComadrin 12]

I get stuck in Agia Marina pretty often. The bridges are real sticklers. I even made a report. http://feedback.arma3.com/view.php?id=11197

[afp 1]

As I already said, for friendly AI this is really annoying. It affects mostly the campaign, where usually you need to lead your people around. If you're playing single player scenario, as a workaround, I strongly suggest to make all team "playable" so you can switch to every single AI and arrange them as you wish. 3-4 AIs are manageable.

Also, some very important issue, here if possible.

The HOLD waypoint should make AI defend the area and DO NOT CHASE the enemy. They should stick around the waypoint, look for cover and open fire. This is good for defending an objective, right now they get up and chase the players, like any other waypoint. This help to create more various missions, plus closer to real behavior - nobody gets up and move around under heavy fire.

[Flash Thunder 10]

Haven't found this to be the case at all in 3 -reminds me of mid patch level Arma 2. Where is this happening? I've led my squad thru Agia hundreds of times and the only problem I get is them sometimes taking a really strange route. Although sometimes if a wounded one enters a house...I have to teamswitch or he'll never leave.

How big is the group your talking about and what part of map? Are any of them wounded?

Had a fireteam so 3 but only had 2 with me one was KIA. My skirmish was in the area of Agia Marina, I had made sure the area was clear and the other 2 were not wounded in the engagements. They did not want to take orders at all. I ended up restarting the skirmish a few times to run into the same issue. AI needs more attention from BI.

Anybody else running into an issue where an Machine Gunner AI will be shooting at me over a small rock wall but will never hit me as if his bullets were colliding with the low rock wall even though his muzzle is clearly over it? This has happened numerous times in Agia Marina right next to the piers.

Edited July 18, 2013 by Flash Thunder

[Polygon 11]

As I already said, for friendly AI this is really annoying. It affects mostly the campaign, where usually you need to lead your people around. If you're playing single player scenario, as a workaround, I strongly suggest to make all team "playable" so you can switch to every single AI and arrange them as you wish. 3-4 AIs are manageable.

Also, some very important issue, here if possible.

The HOLD waypoint should make AI defend the area and DO NOT CHASE the enemy. They should stick around the waypoint, look for cover and open fire. This is good for defending an objective, right now they get up and chase the players, like any other waypoint. This help to create more various missions, plus closer to real behavior - nobody gets up and move around under heavy fire.

+1. "GUARD" waypoint is for defense AND chasing enemy, not HOLD. You'd better report your concerns on feedback trackers and make sure others can support them.

As we know, bragging on BIF doesn't help much, especially in threads with "aggressive titles" like this one.

[jiltedjock 10]

However, that's not to say that progress on the AI is a write-off. We've recently added a new programmer, and he's been looking into and familiarising himself with certain aspects of the AI. I've talked to him and he agreed to make some notes on the progress he's made so far (currently related to AI targeting, both long distance and CQB), and he will appreciate feedback on the changes he's making to help validate that it's not negatively affecting other things.

If he also has a look at GL4, ASR AI and TPW Suppression from the Arma 2 mods - which in my view is the minimum combination to get a good single player experience in Arma 2 - that would not be wasted research.

Of course, some of what these mods do is smoke and mirrors eg getting AI into buildings when the AI is in combat mode is done by examining the index of building positions near a group and then issuing the units with move orders.

It would be far better if the AI squad leader actually knew there was some advantage to garrisoning in a building, in some circumstances. For example by 2 new values being added to each building position - one for cover, and one for view (eg higher value for rooftop). If the group has a defensive waypoint, the squad leader could use these values to determine if there is somewhere useful to put the MG, for example.

Edited July 19, 2013 by jiltedjock

[bad benson 1733]

It would be far better if the AI squad leader actually knew there was some advantage to garrisoning in a building, in some circumstances. For example by 2 new values being added to each building position - one for cover, and one for view (eg higher value for rooftop). If the group has a defensive waypoint, the squad leader could use these values to determine if there is somewhere useful to put the MG, for example.

i think there is a garrison script that does some of that. i think though that this is too big of a task using the current AI and its indoor "path finding". in this case i actually would already be happy with the illusion of clever AI especially when searching for the player. a simple cycling through building positions of a building the player is suspected to be in would be enough in my opinion.

having AI really fight from buildings with the current system is pretty much impossible i'm afraid.

[froggyluv 2136]

i think there is a garrison script that does some of that. i think though that this is too big of a task using the current AI and its indoor "path finding". in this case i actually would already be happy with the illusion of clever AI especially when searching for the player. a simple cycling through building positions of a building the player is suspected to be in would be enough in my opinion.

having AI really fight from buildings with the current system is pretty much impossible i'm afraid.

Didn't JSRS have the ability to determine whether an AI was indoor or out? Why not expand on this and build FSM around this such as never go prone if indoor or do LOS check so AI is not facing walls? I dunno, maybe Im totally wrong but surely some tlc here is needed.

[Ash712 1]

Anyone notice that most of the time you command your AI to "Copy Stance" they don't do so?! :p

There are also no commands to issue your AI that make use of the "new stances" (aka "combat stance", and the others etc.)...

They obviously don't "Copy Stance" if you are in one of the "new stance" modes either :(

I really hope BI plans to fix this issue, or the "Singleplayer" is going to be a pain like A2's due to awkward AI.

I don't know how many times my "squad" has got me killed for standing up while I'm prone sneaking up on the enemy! ;)

I could keep micro-managing them by telling them to "go prone", "go crouched", etc., but I change stances a lot!

*^That's also what "Copy Stance" is supposed to be for...less hassle*

Edited July 19, 2013 by Ash712

[zooloo75 834]

Just got an idea to check if anything is inside a building :)

Make a script that creates triggers for every building on the map - then have it resize according to the bounding box X and Y's of each building. Each trigger will then be added in an array and you can then have it check if an object is inside any of the triggers in the array.

[das attorney 858]

Didn't JSRS have the ability to determine whether an AI was indoor or out? Why not expand on this and build FSM around this such as never go prone if indoor or do LOS check so AI is not facing walls? I dunno, maybe Im totally wrong but surely some tlc here is needed.

JSRS uses lineIntersectsWith to check if indoors. (Filtered against class "NonStrategic" or "House"). I can't remember which one.

[Azzur33 1]

AI return to formation.

Roger

10 seconds later

Negative

AI I swear you're not in danger here I'll put you in aware mode just to be sure. Now will you fucking regroup for fucks sake?

Roger

No can do.

*Kills myself*

AI is the bane of this game.

"All disengage!"

"Return to formation!"

Works. Unless they are stuck, somewhere somehow. Or under fire.

Tested multiple times in Agia M. too.

You can manage friendly AI pretty well and accurately.

And you have to be active giving the orders, which is not as easy or quick with the keyboard as it would be with voice commands or hand signals, naturally.

Requires some real effort, but knowing the command system well helps a lot.

Edited July 20, 2013 by Azzur33

[metalcraze 290]

Anyone notice that most of the time you command your AI to "Copy Stance" they don't do so?! :p

In ArmA3, just like in all ArmAs before incl. OFP AI cannot use crouch stance unless forced to do so using scripts/orders. They do copy your stance but they will either go prone when you are prone or crouching or will stand when you are standing.

There's an old ticket related to this

https://dev-heaven.net/issues/23559

[D_wolf 1]

I noticed that time of the day, lighting and fog have no effect in AI visibility... Doesn't matter if it's pitch black, AI will still see you from far. Even without NV.

[purepassion 22]

I noticed that time of the day, lighting and fog have no effect in AI visibility... Doesn't matter if it's pitch black, AI will still see you from far. Even without NV.

Can you create a repro? From experience I can't say I would be able to confirm this.

[D_wolf 1]

Can you create a repro? From experience I can't say I would be able to confirm this.

The AI facing the player doesn't see him if it's very foggy or very dark but if you alert the AI (ie: shoot randomly to the air) the AI will accurately hit the player even though there is a mass of fog infront of the player.

I set the fog to highest value and place an enemy infront facing me at a distance of 100m. I stay there for a while and the AI doesn't see me. But if I randomly shoot the air, the AI will kill me with a few shots.

Also the AI is able to hit me if I shoot and then change my position and move around. I can't see where the enemy is but it seems that after being alerted the AI is able to track my position even though there is a ridiculously huge amount of fog between us.

The AI should know my direction with the shots but SHOULDN'T EXACTLY know where I am

Edited July 20, 2013 by D_wolf

[old_painless 183]

The AI facing the player doesn't see him if it's very foggy or very dark but if you alert the AI (ie: shoot randomly to the air) the AI will accurately hit the player even though there is a mass of fog infront of the player.

I set the fog to highest value and place an enemy infront facing me at a distance of 100m. I stay there for a while and the AI doesn't see me. But if I randomly shoot the air, the AI will kill me with a few shots.

I just ran a test of that, with the two of us on the runway. I can not confirm this in build 107978, using Regular as in-game difficulty. Edit: Elite difficulty makes no difference to what I experience.

No fog, he starts firing immediately and takes me out. Fog at 100 (max), he doesn't start shooting. If I fire shots into the air, he still does not shoot.

Edited July 20, 2013 by Old_Painless

[froggyluv 2136]

Night definitely makes a difference - I was able to crouch walk up to an astonishing 16m to enemy squad facing me! The normal spotting distance was 305. Of course, that was with no NVG and super pitch black night -pretty pleased with that :)

One thing that seems to be missing from the previous titles is the "Unknown" target - has this been removed? That would be a huge disappointment as the Unknown was key in adding believability to the AI spotting. They see something, they're unsure whether it's a foe so they track and/or investigate. As it is now, it seems very binary -don't see anything or open up.