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fabrizio_t

[WIP] bCombat infantry AI Mod [SP]

How do you rate your first bCombat experience  

55 members have voted

  1. 1. How do you rate your first bCombat experience

    • Very disappointing
      2
    • Mediocre
      4
    • Average
      2
    • Good
      16
    • Very good
      31


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Hi Fabrizio_T, do we no longer need a user config file with the latest version?

Just tested the latest version and it doesn't seem to be initialising. I'm not getting the normal message saying that it is running and when I load a mission and I can't see any balloons. bcombat_fnc_debug_balloons is definitely uncommented in the bcombat sqf file. Any ideas?

Edited by stun

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Hi Fabrizio_T, do we no longer need a user config file with the latest version?

You need both at the moment.

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can the Ai see the balls above each Ais head? Reason I ask is two points.....One is that the balls are part of the shadow of the character and other is at night a Ai enemy saw me and I took his nvgs off so just wondering thanks..

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You need both at the moment.

Hmm, there was no userconfig folder included in the latest version that I downloaded - @bcombat_v0.13_20131122. Do I just use the user config file from v0.12?

Edited by stun

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Do we go into the Config file to change the hearing and granade throwing or is it in done in bcombat sqf?

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Sure, i agree.

It already works almost that way.

I have some ideas for machinegunners too.

Usually, the info i provide here is simplified,but there's much more in the code already.

Actually, a unit will return fire if (almost true-to-real pseudo-code):

(unit is alive)
AND (unit is not player)
AND (enemy is enemy)
AND (unit is not captive)
AND (unit is not fleeing)
AND (unit can fire) 
AND (unit skill not too low) 
AND (enemy in range of unit's current weapon) 
AND (combatmode is not BLUE) 
AND (knowledge of enemy high enough) 
AND (unit is not moving OR hidden OR distance to enemy is under threshold)
AND (enemy is visible)
AND ( unit suppression not too high OR enemy very near OR angle to enemy is under threshold)

Please share the video.

Cool, good to see such amount of depth in your work.

*removed*

Edited by Bouben

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Yeah what I hate about how many suppression mods do is that they make the AI purposely cowardly and inaccurate.

In reality at least for US forces is that if you are not near any sort of cover, you immediately drop and return fire to establish fire superiority, only then do you bound back or towards cover. If cover is nearby, you get to it and try to establish fire superiority. That is if you are in a situation like the video above, if you do not return fire you will die. Unfortunately there is no way to script context into the game. Sometimes for example Taliban will initiate contact to ambush, however they do so from a great distance and if you can get to cover you are really in no immediate danger of them closing with you. They usually do that just to disrupt your operations, not necessarily kill you.

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bouben i can tell you that that video needs to be removed , i have seen these types of videos posted before and im pretty sure there against the forum rules... i mean someone is fucking killed in the middle of the screen ... for the sake of others just removed it bouben.. before a moderator does it for you and gives you a infraction..

---------- Post added at 09:26 ---------- Previous post was at 09:24 ----------

hey fab, as others have posted theres no userconfig, is this suppose to be.

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bouben i can tell you that that video needs to be removed , i have seen these types of videos posted before and im pretty sure there against the forum rules... i mean someone is fucking killed in the middle of the screen ... for the sake of others just removed it bouben.. before a moderator does it for you and gives you a infraction..

---------- Post added at 09:26 ---------- Previous post was at 09:24 ----------

hey fab, as others have posted theres no userconfig, is this suppose to be.

Yes, better to remove the video.

It's not what i was expecting to see.

About userconfig: sorry, my fault not having included.

It is unchanged though, please take it from previous version.

Or create it from scratch as \userconfig\bcombat_config.hpp and paste this into:

/*
// Default ArmA3 config 
class CfgAISkill
{
aimingAccuracy[] = {0,0,1,1};
aimingSpeed[] = {0,0.5,1,1};
aimingShake[] = {0,0,1,1};
endurance[] = {0,0,1,1};
spotDistance[] = {0,0.2,1,0.4};
spotTime[] = {0,0,1,0.7};
courage[] = {0,0,1,1};
reloadSpeed[] = {0,0,1,1};
commanding[] = {0,0,1,1};
general[] = {0,0,1,1};
};
*/

class CfgAISkill
{
aimingAccuracy[] = {0,0,1,0.7};
aimingSpeed[] = {0,0.3,1,1};
aimingShake[] = {0,0,1,1};
endurance[] = {0,0,1,1};
spotDistance[] = {0,0.3,1,0.6};
spotTime[] = {0,0.2,1,1};
courage[] = {0,0,1,1};
reloadSpeed[] = {0,0.2,1,1};
commanding[] = {0,0.3,1,1};
general[] = {0,0,1,1};
};

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It is removed, sorry guys. Did not wanted to offend you - I warned everybody it was of graphic nature. Hope you saw the point though.

Edited by Bouben

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Just realized why I was getting those missing resources errors. I'm running my mods from the MyDocuments Arma 3 folder. When I put a copy of the mod in the Arma 3 game folder, the errors went away.

Edited by TheCapulet

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Here Is a video of Sniping again on Stratis Near Stratis Air base I have incoming blufor moving through town,and Me and my AI partner set on the big hill next to Airbase..The rest you just have to watch just Epic thanks Fab for making this a great Mod..I really enjoy testing this thanks https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zC5iCBqrZvg

---------- Post added at 11:33 PM ---------- Previous post was at 10:05 PM ----------

Can you tell me how these numbers work,I know there for skill lost but how do you know what the numbers mean?Rather how do you come up with them what say for example if(isNil "bcombat_penalty_flanking") then { bcombat_penalty_flanking = 4; }; // max relative % of unit skill loss - adding to bcombat_penalty_bullet!................what does 4 for mean? Thank

// Suppression-related params

if(isNil "bcombat_penalty_bullet") then { bcombat_penalty_bullet = 4; }; // max relative % of unit skill loss

if(isNil "bcombat_penalty_flanking") then { bcombat_penalty_flanking = 4; }; // max relative % of unit skill loss - adding to bcombat_penalty_bullet!

if(isNil "bcombat_penalty_scream") then { bcombat_penalty_scream = 0; }; // max relative % of unit skill loss

if(isNil "bcombat_penalty_enemy_unknown") then { bcombat_penalty_enemy_unknown = 4; }; // max relative % of unit skill loss - adding to bcombat_penalty_bullet!

if(isNil "bcombat_penalty_enemy_contact") then { bcombat_penalty_enemy_contact = 25; }; // max relative % of unit skill loss

if(isNil "bcombat_penalty_enemy_close") then { bcombat_penalty_enemy_close = 0; }; // max relative % of unit skill loss

if(isNil "bcombat_penalty_casualty") then { bcombat_penalty_casualty = 20; }; // max relative % of unit skill loss

if(isNil "bcombat_penalty_wounded") then { bcombat_penalty_wounded = 10; }; // max relative % of unit skill loss

if(isNil "bcombat_penalty_explosion") then { bcombat_penalty_explosion = 4; }; // max relative % of unit skill loss

if(isNil "bcombat_penalty_recovery") then { bcombat_penalty_recovery = 2; }; // max relative % of unit skill loss

Edited by bravo409

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fabrizio_T - I uncommented the config.sqf (without changing your settings in there) and played a mission that I've probably played 100 times or more and... woah. It was amazing. I played it 3 or 4 times and got slaughtered each time, but I noticed some very cool stuff.

First of all, the suppressive fire is terrifying. In the mission, the enemies come from 300-400 meters outside of a town and the MG was laying down suppression even after losing site of my team and me. Hearing the bullets land so close and keep coming is really frightening. You don't want to stick your head out for fear of it getting blown off.

Speaking of which, I was getting picked off a lot more than in the previous build. Perhaps this is because of the suppressive fire? The AI definitely seemed more accurate at a distance than before.

Because I kept dying, I played the same part of the mission over and over and it was fascinating to see how the AI behaved. In the mission, I'm part of a 4-man AI-led team that's supposed to move from one end of a small town to the other. Typically, the AI wants to skirt around the west side of the town instead of going up the middle. Each time, however, something different happened:

1) They started going around the west and came under sniper fire from the NW. This ended up killing three of the team, leaving just me.

2) The second attempt, the AI started around the west again and again came under fire. The AI leader and team retreated and we ended going up the center of town instead. (This behaviour was really cool to see.)

3) The third attempt, instead of going west, the AI leader saw/heard enemies to the east engaging our other fire team, so we went east and then again up the center of town, moving in a very careful way, eventually coming under fire from the north.

I noticed the enemy AI were all over the place -- literally. They would pop up in the most unexpected places (often behind us). They'd cut through yards and generally scare the crap out of me. It was very cool.

I also saw the AI using grenades more and to decent effect.

Overall - wow. I can't wait to hear more about these settings.

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Have to agree that when uncommenting the config entries it really changes the gameplay !

What I would really need to see is a mission, where we have vanilla AI VS bCombat AI, and perhaps use Gamma's lovely plotter! How could we do something like that?

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Just a note on BRAVO409's video, I think maybe the AI have no concpept of being fired from an elevated position and moving to appropriate cover, just from some simple testing of firing down on units from the hill next to the airport, both in vanilla and using bcombat.

When using BCombat they move to prone quickly and return fire, but they kind of remain there in prone position as if they think they are in cover while a few of them attempt to move to real cover near by but eventually they usually get picked off, I thought maybe vanilla handled this situation better as they didn't go straight to prone and moved to cover a bit quicker.

I haven't done too much testing on this, just something I noticed.

Really enjoying it so far, I feel they are much more convincing when fighting against them, I think this might be simply from them keeping there heads down.

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Speaking of which, I was getting picked off a lot more than in the previous build. Perhaps this is because of the suppressive fire? The AI definitely seemed more accurate at a distance than before.

Well, careful with tweaking this. Arma community hates AI sharpshooters.

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I just played the Infantry Showcase with the config.sqf enabled and it's a whole new ball game.

The first time, the doc got stuck in the crouching weapon up-weapon down loop so I restarted because he wouldn't move to the dead scout to advance the mission.

The second time played out similar to vanilla, but the ridge line enemies showed up earlier, likely because they could hear us engaging the enemies in the valley. I got picked off not long after they showed up.

The third time was magnificent: We engaged the first enemies as usual, killing a couple right away. I took the high ground on the right, behind a rock and was able to kill one more. However, I could see the debug bubble of another AI, but he was prone and I couldn't see him because of the contour of the ground. So one of my AI team mates went up the hill on the left, flanking and killing the guy who was hidden.

So, we started moving up the valley. Again, the ridge line enemies showed up early. Three of our AI stayed in the valley and engaged and the fourth again headed up the hill to the left, so I followed him. Almost immediately, the two of us were engaging enemy AI who had moved to flank us(!) on the hill. The way my AI partner moved was really great to watch as he bounded and engaged from cover. I moved along behind as best as I could and he killed two or three guys up there. We moved to the edge of tree line where we had a pretty clear view of Girna and we killed a couple more AI from there, then he headed down to rejoin the squad. As I was following, two enemy AI came out from behind rocks to my left. I was able to get one, but the second killed me.

Losing is fun. ;)

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You should make video of your experiences

Yes. I would love to see how the mod affects the game.

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You should make video of your experiences

Ok, here's one, unedited, of the Infantry showcase. You see some friendly AI flanking at about 1:15 and enemy flanking starting around 3:30. Plus me shooting for no reason and also nearly blowing myself up with a grenade. ;)

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Ok, I'm just uploading two videos of a test scenario inspired by

. Basically, a four man fireteam has a move waypoint (AWARE, NORMAL) from south of Kore over top of the hill in the north. On the hill, however, are four ungrouped autoriflemen, placed facing the town, but with no waypoints. The difference between bCombat with config.sqf and vanilla A3 is pretty much night and day.

In the bCombat video, the autoriflemen spot the fireteam before they even make it to the south edge of town. The ensuing firefight (which I cut short at about 10 minutes) sees two of the fireteam dead, one flanking far to the west, and a fourth AI seemingly "stuck". (I'm not sure if the latter was a bug. If I'd had Troopmon running, I could have checked to see if the AI's waypoint had disappeared and what his combat status was, but I didn't.)

In the vanilla video, the fireteam makes it all the way through town and they initiate the combat, killing all the autoriflemen (I think - I lost track of the fourth) and losing one of their own.

Will post when they're up (you'll have to pardon my poor camera work). ;)

Here's the vanilla AI video:

And here's the bCombat video:

Final edit: I ran the test with ASR AI, too, just for comparison, and it was very similar to vanilla -- BLUFOR made it to the NE side of town and initiated contact. What was different about ASR was how the autoriflemen reacted. They fired back much faster than vanilla and they moved from their positions. Two went east to a nearby building and fired from there while the two others stayed where they were. The OPFOR riflemen ended up killing the BLUFOR fireteam and only losing one guy.

Edited by ebarstad

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Hi to all.

Nice to see some positive feedback.

Currently working on v0.14, which is further boosting machinegunners role (= more suppressive fire).

I'm considering adding smoke grenades handling too, based on collected feedback.

I played the campaign with v0.13 over the WE, without a single hitch.

Very nice, pleasant experience.

Well, careful with tweaking this. Arma community hates AI sharpshooters.

Me too.

No way bCombat is making AI more accurate than vanilla.

It's at very least about 30% less accurate actually, not accounting for dynamic morale effects.

All in all i'd estimate overall average accuracy about 50-60% compared to vanilla settings.

Just a note on BRAVO409's video, I think maybe the AI have no concpept of being fired from an elevated position and moving to appropriate cover, just from some simple testing of firing down on units from the hill next to the airport, both in vanilla and using bcombat.

When using BCombat they move to prone quickly and return fire, but they kind of remain there in prone position as if they think they are in cover while a few of them attempt to move to real cover near by but eventually they usually get picked off, I thought maybe vanilla handled this situation better as they didn't go straight to prone and moved to cover a bit quicker.

I haven't done too much testing on this, just something I noticed.

Really enjoying it so far, I feel they are much more convincing when fighting against them, I think this might be simply from them keeping there heads down.

By the description you gave i suppose you're on stock settings (e.g. config not uncommented).

However, movement to cover has indeed issues, hard to overcome.

I yet have to see a single mod getting this right.

Whatever the logic, vanilla AI targeting routines break the behaviour coded by the mod.

This means, when in combat mode, you order some unit to go somewhere, but it will seldom go there.

Basically i added some kind of move-to-cover behaviour knowing it would fail at times.

Hopefully BIS will give some more control on combat mode.

I was getting picked off a lot more than in the previous build. Perhaps this is because of the suppressive fire? The AI definitely seemed more accurate at a distance than before.

Accuracy has not been raised, actually it has been lowered.

That said there are many possible explanations for better AI lethality:

* Units are now allowed to pick targets of opportunity from distance. This is true for medium-long range units especially ( snipers, machinegunners )

* Fast rotation make AI units frame the target faster.

* Suppressive fire and blind fire are deadly. Units may fire through cover.

* Target prioritization was further tuned

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Now some insight for suppression penalty variables:

Penalty variables

here is the full list, as of v0.13:

bcombat_penalty_bullet = 4;

bcombat_penalty_flanking = 4;

bcombat_penalty_scream = 0;

bcombat_penalty_enemy_unknown = 4;

bcombat_penalty_enemy_contact = 25;

bcombat_penalty_enemy_close = 0;

bcombat_penalty_casualty = 20;

bcombat_penalty_wounded = 10;

bcombat_penalty_explosion = 4;

ibcombat_penalty_recovery = 2;

Current Skill level (accuracy included) is reduced by a maximum of X%, X being the variable value.

The effect is damped by original skill level.

Basically units with original skill=1 suffer no penalty, units with skill=0 full penalty.

Other cases are in-between.

Bullets suppression penalty

3 variables control this:

bcombat_penalty_bullet = 4;

bcombat_penalty_flanking = 4;

bcombat_penalty_enemy_unknown = 4;

Total penalty = (bcombat_penalty_bullet + bcombat_penalty_enemy_unknown + bcombat_penalty_flanking) * (1 - unit skill)

Each bullet is causing up to 4% skill reduction, as per bcombat_penalty_bullet value.

If the shooter is unknown then bcombat_penalty_enemy_unknown adds 4%.

This is done in order make ambushing and sniping more effective.

The angle from which bullets come does matter.

This is handled by bcombat_penalty_flanking.

Frontal bullets cause no overhead, bullets from side (90°) half penalty, from back (180°) full penalty.

So penalty range is 0% - 4%, depending on angle.

This is done in order to make flanking effective.

Just an important a clarification, here i mean flanking of suppressed or pinned enemies.

Flanking itself is NOT supposed to give ANY advantage, on the contrary should eventually hurt the flanker.

Flanking is useful only as long as the enemy is actively put under suppressive fire from a different direction.

Machinegunners are probably the best units to provide suppressive fire.

Consider that with bCombat units do cover each other, so machinegunners which are already laying suppressive fire are capable to dynamically switch target to return fire onto enemies targeting flanking units.

No micromanaging needed.

As a sidenote, please the consider that for any unit the number of bullets being registered as suppression fire, hence having effect on morale, is capped.

A single unit will register no more that 5 bullets / second (0.2 secs. latency).

This is done for both performance reasons and practical reasons.

The latter being: suppression effect is not supposed to linearly scale with amount of gunfire: e.g. 100 bullets / second are not meant to cause 10x the suppression penalty of 10 bullets / second.

More to come ...

Edited by fabrizio_T

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fabrizio_T (and to anyone else interested): Here's the mission I used in the videos above. I'm attaching it because I keep seeing at least one BLUFOR AI get "stuck" each time I run it with bCombat and I'm not sure why. I've run the mission with config.sqf on and with it off and each time I see the same behaviour. I'm just wondering why it happens -- is it a bug or are the units leaving the group or ... ? Maybe someone can shed light on the situation for me.

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fabrizio_T (and to anyone else interested): Here's the mission I used in the videos above. I'm attaching it because I keep seeing at least one BLUFOR AI get "stuck" each time I run it with bCombat and I'm not sure why. I've run the mission with config.sqf on and with it off and each time I see the same behaviour. I'm just wondering why it happens -- is it a bug or are the units leaving the group or ... ? Maybe someone can shed light on the situation for me.

Looks like i have been able to finally reproduce this.

From what i can see the "stuck" unit has usually "ATTACK" as currentCommand, coupled with expectedDestination position = current unit position and planningmode = "LEADER PLANNED".

This is unusual.

In short looks like that unit has been commanded to attack some enemy, but it fails to approach it.

I have some doubts it's bCombat fault, since it does not issue any "ATTACK" commands, at distance.

Usually this is ordered by AI leader. I suspect this is a vanilla bug, causing units failing to engage far enemies , when ordered to.

An hypothesis is that due to fhe fact bCombat allows for farther enemy detection, this issue is triggered sooner / more often.

I'm investigating more.

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