[OPEN BETA] [SP] bCombat infantry AI Mod

[serjames 357]

Fabrizio.. Excited to hear about R0.17 !!

Out of interest we had some red balloon magic on our server last night, someone mis-read my post and installed a version from armaholic without setting dev mod off.

Just for sanity's sake could you default to dev mode off for the next release :-)

Cheers

SJ

[fabrizio_t 58]

I guess it's the way the game/bCombat makes AI units aware of your presence via knowsAbout, it's like a magic radar. These problems are very bad with the AI's first shot or two, they are deadly accurate, after that they receive some spread. As I said earlier, at some point between game patches and bCombat versions this problem seemed largely gone, but it's back.

bCombat does not simply rely on knowsAbout for its "radar", it evaluates other criteria as unit's peripheral vision, distance to threat and accuracy of perceived enemy position vs. real position.

The real problem, which is a sensible ArmA core issue, is that unit's enemy knowledge is instantly shared through the entire group. This is not something a mod can change.

---------- Post added at 20:21 ---------- Previous post was at 20:20 ----------

Fabrizio.. Excited to hear about R0.17 !!

Out of interest we had some red balloon magic on our server last night, someone mis-read my post and installed a version from armaholic without setting dev mod off.

Just for sanity's sake could you default to dev mode off for the next release :-)

Cheers

SJ

Yes i'll put it off on v0.16 FINAL.

[serjames 357]

....... actually thinking about it could you add a debug that we can turn on and off ingame using the Admin debug.. Now THAT would be useful. Sometime mid session it would be great to check why the AI are doing what they are doing and the ability to add balloons and the stats box, with a command and then remove them.... i.e. a little like how ALiVE key grants Admin users the ability to debug unit profile information. THAT would be gold dust !!

SJ

[ebarstad 18]

I will look into the arty issue.

It may be a sort of blue-on-blue issue though: friendly fire damage is capped by default and some kind of arty fire may be (wrongly) considered non-enemy.

So please try setting into config.sqf:

bcombat_allow_friendly_capped_damage = false;

and let me know if the issue goes away.

Yep, that's it. If I set that to false, OPFOR infantry die when the arty hits.

Sorry to hear you've been unwell. Feel better!

[LowFlyZone 10]

bCombat does not simply rely on knowsAbout for its "radar", it evaluates other criteria as unit's peripheral vision, distance to threat and accuracy of perceived enemy position vs. real position.

The real problem, which is a sensible ArmA core issue, is that unit's enemy knowledge is instantly shared through the entire group. This is not something a mod can change.

Thanks for the explanation. Wasn't accusing bCombat or anything tho, just rambling about limitations still in the game, with my limited knowledge. ;)

Regarding the future AI radio between groups, that would be awesome, could bring a little UPSMON functionlity into none UPSMON missions, but please keep the radio range configurable, as well as on/off as it could break some missions.

Btw thank you for the AI artillery damage fix!

[sixt 26]

will release version, be able to be used on a multiplayer dedicated server?? i primarily play on my own dedicated server, and i really wanna try this.

And will this work with tpwcas_v3 ??

Edited March 18, 2014 by Sixt

[Jackson Snow 10]

will release version, be able to be used on a multiplayer dedicated server?? i primarily play on my own dedicated server, and i really wanna try this.

Try it now, you might be surprised...

[cigar0 12]

We can't wait ;-) MP would be so great

[serjames 357]

er.... it's already working in MP and on a dedicated.

Need to read the thread guys..... :j:

[arch3r84 10]

hey guys, im trying to use Bcombat and have been trying to for a while now, but every time i try and load into the editor i get this error : "Script @bcombat\bcombat.sqf not found" if anyone knows how to fix this it would be greatly appreciated.

[PVT Watt.J 14]

hey guys, im trying to use Bcombat and have been trying to for a while now, but every time i try and load into the editor i get this error : "Script @bcombat\bcombat.sqf not found" if anyone knows how to fix this it would be greatly appreciated.

Did you rename the @bcombat folder to something else? If so change it to @bcombat.

[arch3r84 10]

I did that and im still getting an error :/ - might be a good idea to add that im running it in the dev build with a bunch of other mods

Edited March 19, 2014 by arch3r84

[kremator 1065]

bCombat doesn't have a problem with DEV version that I can see, however it COULD be the other mods you are running.

More likely is that you have not got the folder structure setup correctly.

I recommend reading the setup in the first post.

[fabrizio_t 58]

hey guys, im trying to use Bcombat and have been trying to for a while now, but every time i try and load into the editor i get this error : "Script @bcombat\bcombat.sqf not found" if anyone knows how to fix this it would be greatly appreciated.

Please doublecheck your install.

Follow installation instructions shown here:

https://github.com/fabrizioT/bCombat

I guess you forgot to rename "bCombat-master" folder to "@bcombat" ?

[arch3r84 10]

I've read it over and over, its kinda driving me crazy, im doing exactly what it says to do, putting all the folders exactly where they r designed to go and it still craps out on me. (pardon my french)

if anyone could spare the time to skype me or use teamviewer to help me out today around 4:00 west coast time that would be great. PM me if u could help.

[fabrizio_t 58]

Thanks for the explanation. Wasn't accusing bCombat or anything tho, just rambling about limitations still in the game, with my limited knowledge. ;)

Regarding the future AI radio between groups, that would be awesome, could bring a little UPSMON functionlity into none UPSMON missions, but please keep the radio range configurable, as well as on/off as it could break some missions.

Btw thank you for the AI artillery damage fix!

No problem, mine was just some explanation.

Radio range will be configurable, of course.

A more proper fix to arty fire will be merged into v0.16 final.

Edited March 19, 2014 by fabrizio_T

[Jackson Snow 10]

I've read it over and over, its kinda driving me crazy, im doing exactly what it says to do, putting all the folders exactly where they r designed to go and it still craps out on me. (pardon my french)

if anyone could spare the time to skype me or use teamviewer to help me out today around 4:00 west coast time that would be great. PM me if u could help.

So you have the folder @bcombat inside your Arma 3 folder? Inside of that directly, do you have the file bcombat.sqf, along with a few other files and the addons folder and a couple of other folders? Or are all of those things inside their own sub-folder? If you have extracted the .zip, it has the bcombat-master folder inside - if you extracted the .zip into it's own folder you'd then have @bcombat\bcombat-master\bcombat.sqf, which is obviously incorrect...

Try to find your bcombat.sqf, and look to see if it is in exactly the same strcture as given in your error: @bcombat\bcombat.sqf

[bravo409 13]

Fab ...I have been having problems with AI hearing gunshots from far...Example I have unit walking and in the hills opfor start shooting about half a click out and I hear it and they still don't react till it hits near them .So I turned up hearing to 500 and still no reaction. Mods I have is jsrs 2.1-and bcombat...Any idea what may be happening here thanks?

[fabrizio_t 58]

Fab ...I have been having problems with AI hearing gunshots from far...Example I have unit walking and in the hills opfor start shooting about half a click out and I hear it and they still don't react till it hits near them .So I turned up hearing to 500 and still no reaction. Mods I have is jsrs 2.1-and bcombat...Any idea what may be happening here thanks?

By default units don't hear sounds from 500 meters away.

Also you have probably raised grenade max hearing distance (bcombat_allow_hearing_grenade_distance), which does not affect bullets hearing distance.

Bullets max hearing distance is about:

muzzle bullet speed (meters per second) / bcombat_allow_hearing_coef

which, with bcombat_allow_hearing_coef=3 as default, usually evaluates to about 300-350 meters at maximum for rifles.

Notice that suppressed weapons give no "bang" alert, but as ammo is not subsonic bullets whizzling close are still heard, up to bdetect_bullet_max_distance or bdetect_degradation_distance (the lowest value).

In short, speaking of unsuppressed light arms, you can raise bcombat_allow_hearing_coef in order to get greater bullets hearing distance, but consider that you'll be causing much overhead in crowded situations.

Also you risk breaking any mission or campaign.

---------- Post added at 22:29 ---------- Previous post was at 22:23 ----------

Try to find your bcombat.sqf, and look to see if it is in exactly the same strcture as given in your error: @bcombat\bcombat.sqf

Wise advice, arch3r84. Your problem is almost 99.9% a path issue.

Edited March 19, 2014 by fabrizio_T

[arch3r84 10]

Back again, well idk what i did but the error : @bcombat\bcombat.sqf : its gone, but now i have this : script @bcombat\unit.sqf not found : anyone got any ideas? Also this error is when i try and preview the game in the editor. -old post- fixed it haha.

Edited March 19, 2014 by arch3r84

[DrDeathO5 10]

Thanks for the mod,

Just installed it and seems to work fine in campaign so far.

[bravo409 13]

By default units don't hear sounds from 500 meters away.

Also you have probably raised grenade max hearing distance (bcombat_allow_hearing_grenade_distance), which does not affect bullets hearing distance.

Bullets max hearing distance is about:

muzzle bullet speed (meters per second) / bcombat_allow_hearing_coef

which, with bcombat_allow_hearing_coef=3 as default, usually evaluates to about 300-350 meters at maximum for rifles.

Notice that suppressed weapons give no "bang" alert, but as ammo is not subsonic bullets whizzling close are still heard, up to bdetect_bullet_max_distance or bdetect_degradation_distance (the lowest value).

In short, speaking of unsuppressed light arms, you can raise bcombat_allow_hearing_coef in order to get greater bullets hearing distance, but consider that you'll be causing much overhead in crowded situations.

Also you risk breaking any mission or campaign.

So what is a good hearing value for rifles with out breaking a mission...Also suppressed ...so I guess a good balance for both suppressed and non suppressed.

[fabrizio_t 58]

By default units don't hear sounds from 500 meters away.

Also you have probably raised grenade max hearing distance (bcombat_allow_hearing_grenade_distance), which does not affect bullets hearing distance.

Bullets max hearing distance is about:

muzzle bullet speed (meters per second) / bcombat_allow_hearing_coef

which, with bcombat_allow_hearing_coef=3 as default, usually evaluates to about 300-350 meters at maximum for rifles.

Notice that suppressed weapons give no "bang" alert, but as ammo is not subsonic bullets whizzling close are still heard, up to bdetect_bullet_max_distance or bdetect_degradation_distance (the lowest value).

In short, speaking of unsuppressed light arms, you can raise bcombat_allow_hearing_coef in order to get greater bullets hearing distance, but consider that you'll be causing much overhead in crowded situations.

Also you risk breaking any mission or campaign.

So what is a good hearing value for rifles with out breaking a mission...Also suppressed ...so I guess a good balance for both suppressed and non suppressed.

Well i think that gameplay-wise current settings are ok, primarily because they won't usually cause mission / campaign issues and reduce overhead.

So i'm not recommending anything different, unless you play only very specific types of missions or you have a very powerful rig.

You may experiment with the following, if you care, at your risk:

speaking of bcombat_allow_hearing_coef, provided your frame rate is healthy (at least over 20fps in average) you may want to put it to 2.

This gives a maximum theoretical bullet hearing range of about 500 meters.

That said, AI units hearing very far sounds are not automatically supposed be alerted and to react to them.

Reaction depends on skill, previous knowledge of shooter, shooter being in sight, its angle, line-of-sight, etc ... many criteria.

It's supposed to be quite fuzzy and hard to predict by design (I consider this a good feature).

When some group has been alerted, it usually send some units to investigate, provided bcombat_allow_investigate = true and bcombat_investigate_max_distance covers distance to sound source.

As it seems you want to have enemies reactive from distance, you may want to raise bcombat_investigate_max_distance to about 500 or 600 meters.

Keep in mind this will bring you performance issues if you play battles involving a lot of units.

---------- Post added at 09:45 ---------- Previous post was at 09:41 ----------

Thanks for the mod,

Just installed it and seems to work fine in campaign so far.

Yes it should work fine, especially if you comply to the settings exposed into the compatibility section here.

---------- Post added at 09:46 ---------- Previous post was at 09:45 ----------

Back again, well idk what i did but the error : @bcombat\bcombat.sqf : its gone, but now i have this : script @bcombat\unit.sqf not found : anyone got any ideas? Also this error is when i try and preview the game in the editor. -old post- fixed it haha.

Nice to hear you got it sorted. Enjoy.

[DrDeathO5 10]

Thanks for the compatibility suggestions. Didn't know that.

[ebarstad 18]

I haven't played a lot recently, especially as a squad leader, but with 0.16RC2 I'm noticing that AI on my team are often getting orders from the mod rather than from me. For example, I often see "Ready" or "Engage" under their names when I haven't given them explicit orders. Is this a new feature or something that slipped through? I thought there was a discussion earlier about bcombat not taking AI squad-mates out of the player's control, but I don't remember the exact details.