WW AICover

[Windwalking 18]

I can definetely try. What should I do?

Yay!

Just turn on debugging from the config and see if they take cover accurately.

[Windwalking 18]

What is that "latest explanation in the Dev branch"? Windwalking, any progress about dedicated servers?

Not yet, though I will have access to a dedicated server soon.

[gliptal 25]

This is strange. With debugging on I see no spheres, but they seem to take cover well (at least in an urban contest).

Yay!

[Windwalking 18]

This is strange. With debugging on I see no spheres, but they seem to take cover well (at least in an urban contest).

Yay!

As long as they take cover I am happy. I will see what's wrong with the spheres though.

[HercMighty 10]

Does this work well with TPW Mod?

[Windwalking 18]

Does this work well with TPW Mod?

I worked with TPW to make sure they do.

[HercMighty 10]

Ok, cool...thanks. I will give this one a go then....

[lucadena 10]

Hi Windwalking,

I'm a fan of your mods (along with TPW's mods).

Thank you for your efforts in making Arma 3 a better game :D

I would like to know if in this mod could be possible to add a cover routine for enemy seeing.

This is the reason:

In a firefight, the first priority of troops are taking some cover before engaging opfor.

I haven't seen any feature of this kind, even if your mod has a good cover routine, it starts after there have been shots.

Don't you think that troops, when enemy is in sight at a distance that is not definied "cqb" (maybe>25mt) should give priority to get cover and then start shooting?

Same thing, but even more important, should be infantry taking cover from vehicles and pop up just to shoot them with AT weapons, and if not available, just disengage and hide from it.

Thanks for your time.

[Windwalking 18]

Hi Windwalking,

I'm a fan of your mods (along with TPW's mods).

Thank you for your efforts in making Arma 3 a better game :D

I would like to know if in this mod could be possible to add a cover routine for enemy seeing.

This is the reason:

In a firefight, the first priority of troops are taking some cover before engaging opfor.

I haven't seen any feature of this kind, even if your mod has a good cover routine, it starts after there have been shots.

Don't you think that troops, when enemy is in sight at a distance that is not definied "cqb" (maybe>25mt) should give priority to get cover and then start shooting?

Same thing, but even more important, should be infantry taking cover from vehicles and pop up just to shoot them with AT weapons, and if not available, just disengage and hide from it.

Thanks for your time.

Thanks.

The mod is doing this already. The AI will seek cover if attacked and the fire was not expected. Here is what happens, when two groups encounter each other's, the first to fire will make the other group take cover immediately.

Vehicles, mortars, and hand grenades will always make the AI seek cover with this mod if they are close enough to the unit. U can play with the config parameters to see how far u want the effect to be. They will take cover if less than the near parameter.

[lucadena 10]

Sorry, maybe I cannot explain myself very much and I apologize for that, but english is not my 1st language.

This mod (that I always used, and will always use) makes units go in cover for hearing shots or vehicle sounds.

I was asking to lauch the "cover routine" for seeing an enemy (even if the enemy hasn't spotted the unit)

thanks for the fast answer :)

[Windwalking 18]

Sorry, maybe I cannot explain myself very much and I apologize for that, but english is not my 1st language.

This mod (that I always used, and will always use) makes units go in cover for hearing shots or vehicle sounds.

I was asking to lauch the "cover routine" for seeing an enemy (even if the enemy hasn't spotted the unit)

thanks for the fast answer :)

I see what u mean. However it will be very tricky to know when to do that and when not to. What if u had the advantage on them? Should u run to cover then? Also the cover point need to be able to fire from on the enemy, not just a protective one, I will think about this and see what can I do.

[lucadena 10]

I personally have been in the army and have a long experience playing airsoft. For what I seen the only moment where you don't look for cover before engaging is in CQB (<10m in airsoft, but in real life i guess it would be <25m).

Even in case of big advantage, units should look always for cover with high priority before engaging. this would increase the advantage, not risking spoiling it imho.

I thank you very much for considering my ideas.

[katipo66 94]

I like that idea, I see how it makes sense to find cover to fire from first, would be interesting to see that in action anyway :)

[chrisb 196]

Partly the reason why I find A3 ai so hard to play a reasonable game with, is shown below, these A2 vids show great modded ai, if this could be brought over it would be a massive improvement.

I have been playing A2, and indeed Arma before it, with ai that play really well, they use great tactics, make use of buildings, pop smoke find cover well, react to the situation they are faced with better, react to sound & smoke, plus much, much more:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IylSiNcHguI&list=PLj7LIw2iwG-HBxjqFG4Y32YHKRMkz2AF-&index=63

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=edQzO5oIg7o&list=PLj7LIw2iwG-HBxjqFG4Y32YHKRMkz2AF-&index=89

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XJ6lpc48u_8&list=PLj7LIw2iwG-HBxjqFG4Y32YHKRMkz2AF-&index=12

Its all a long way from A3 ai which are pretty bad, to be honest.

Hope you can maybe look at some and see if you could recreate some of the behaviour shown. I have many examples on my YT, see sig, thanks.:)

Testing a mod at the moment, but I don't think they are going to release an A3 version, just for A2, which is a shame.:(

[Windwalking 18]

I will try to experiment with those ideas. I will see if I can make the AI run to Cover before engaging. Bare in mind though that BIS reduced the number of objects I can fetch using nearestobjects in the dev branch. Meaning less accurate find cover routines.

[chrisb 196]

I will try to experiment with those ideas. I will see if I can make the AI run to Cover before engaging. Bare in mind though that BIS reduced the number of objects I can fetch using nearestobjects in the dev branch. Meaning less accurate find cover routines.

Thank you very much for looking and considering some of these, if any can be recreated for A3, it would be a great start.

Thanks.:)

Edited September 24, 2013 by ChrisB

[froggyluv 2136]

I will try to experiment with those ideas. I will see if I can make the AI run to Cover before engaging. Bare in mind though that BIS reduced the number of objects I can fetch using nearestobjects in the dev branch. Meaning less accurate find cover routines.

Hmm, they reduced number of objects as in useless objects such as lamp post? Also, the 'look for cover before firing' -will that be depending on distance? I think BI vanilla AI had that but since the AI move routines are so wonky (meaning they don't just sprint in direct line for cover) that it was ruining CQB. That's why they now have the AI just open up if in close distance.

[Windwalking 18]

well I just coded it in. Units will now run to cover on encountering a threat. if closer than 25m, that wont happen. Also my cover routines cancel if the distance between them and the cover is shorter than them and an enemy so its cool for CQB. I have added a parameter in the config to turn off this new feature as I didnt have enough time to experiment with it. Infact, I wont update the front page with this link till I get some feedback and whether or not this change is good. Let me know as soon as possible.

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/3047338/%40WW_AICOVER_v1.50.zip

[chrisb 196]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B792n3_cKAk

Looks better for cover taking, although a problem with moving forward, just one unit does, not sure why. I've got AIA running too, so maybe it could be that. :confused:

[Windwalking 18]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B792n3_cKAk

Looks better for cover taking, although a problem with moving forward, just one unit does, not sure why. I've got AIA running too, so maybe it could be that. :confused:

By moving forward, u mean the unit doesn't move after taking cover? The units did not return to formation? That bug never happened to me, but I can have some checks in place.

[katipo66 94]

Nice windwalking, cannot try it yet but was thinking what about if they cannot find cover then they do not fire.. And either track enemy until they find appropriate cover, or they just stay low and not fire at all if too much risk? Maybe requesting support instead if any close proximity.

Probably not possible or to taxing on CPU or something but might throw off some interesting gameplay?

[sttosin 67]

WindWalking, so looking at userconfig setting. This new runtocover is a 1 (off) by default?

ww_runToCoverOnEncounter = 1; //Setting to turn off running to cover on encounter

[Windwalking 18]

Nice windwalking, cannot try it yet but was thinking what about if they cannot find cover then they do not fire.. And either track enemy until they find appropriate cover, or they just stay low and not fire at all if too much risk? Maybe requesting support instead if any close proximity.

Probably not possible or to taxing on CPU or something but might throw off some interesting gameplay?

Sad reality is, there is no single unit hold fire command from script. Hell there are no way to make AI move under fire. I would love some more control over AI behavior. I will see what I can do.

[lucadena 10]

Hi Windwalking. I did some test, and the firefights last much longer. Units really seem to want to stay alive!

Good job, this mod is a real must now!

[Windwalking 18]

WindWalking, so looking at userconfig setting. This new runtocover is a 1 (off) by default?

ww_runToCoverOnEncounter = 1; //Setting to turn off running to cover on encounter

No 1 is active and 0 is inactive. Sorry for the vague description.