[OPEN BETA] [SP] bCombat infantry AI Mod

[xrook 10]

bcombat has a wierd issue of not returning to 'non-combat aware mode', the only way for me to return my unit to 'non-combat aware mode' is to make sure there are no nearby enemy units at a wide radius

[fabrizio_t 58]

Will the AI then search buildings or is that not important? I hide often in builings and i love it when the Ai is searching houses. Which Value i have to edit?

The changed bcombat_cover_radius default setting means that AI won't look for cover into buildings.

I reverted to this default setting because i noticed again episodes of AI getting stuck / unresponsive after trying to move to cover into buildings.

That's a pathfinding issue with ARMA3, nothing to do with bCombat.

AI will still eventually look for threats in buildings, as long as your config has:

bcombat_allow_hearing = true;		
bcombat_allow_investigate = true;
bcombat_allow_targeting = true;	

The last setting is the one responsible for units to chase some threat (as long as its position is roughly known), even into buildings.

The former settings make AI hear bullets fired in the vicinity and allow them to move on to investigate them (as long as no target is known).

Basically AI units gathers visive / auditive signals and use them to pinpoint and then reach a target.

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

can you double the "combat" behavior for units that carry a launcher so they could react to armored vehicles at a greater distance?

They won't successfully engage from > 250m, usually they try getting closer and get killed (Vanilla problem).

Plus they usually leave formation to attack target, which is not necessarily a good thing.

---------- Post added at 09:28 ---------- Previous post was at 09:26 ----------

I have the same issue (under .16) when using UPS and the units being spawned do NOT have any NVGs whatsoever.

Ok, that's probably the culprit.

Investigating.

---------- Post added at 09:31 ---------- Previous post was at 09:28 ----------

bcombat has a wierd issue of not returning to 'non-combat aware mode', the only way for me to return my unit to 'non-combat aware mode' is to make sure there are no nearby enemy units at a wide radius

That distance is governed by bcombat_cover_radius setting.

As long a known threat (not an existing threat) is present wihin this radius group is likely to stay in combat mode.

Also group will stay in combat for roughly 1-2 minutes after any close threat is being detected.

Other than that, it's just vanilla behaviour.

Edited August 13, 2014 by fabrizio_T

[xrook 10]

That distance is governed by bcombat_cover_radius setting.

As long a known threat (not an existing threat) is present wihin this radius group is likely to stay in combat mode.

Also group will stay in combat for roughly 1-2 minutes after any close threat is being detected.

Other than that, it's just vanilla behaviour.

1-2 minutes huh... cant just be 1 minute or less? my group was attacked like 400 meters away because we were in the open, they havnt shut up about 'COVERING' O.O for quite some time until we were very far enough

---

also there has to be a way for the AT unit to attack the armored vehicle more responsively

[LSD_Timewarp82 21]

The changed bcombat_cover_radius default setting means that AI won't look for cover into buildings.

I reverted to this default setting because i noticed again episodes of AI getting stuck / unresponsive after trying to move to cover into buildings.

That's a pathfinding issue with ARMA3, nothing to do with bCombat.

AI will still eventually look for threats in buildings, as long as your config has:

bcombat_allow_hearing = true;		
bcombat_allow_investigate = true;
bcombat_allow_targeting = true;	

The last setting is the one responsible for units to chase some threat (as long as its position is roughly known), even into buildings.

The former settings make AI hear bullets fired in the vicinity and allow them to move on to investigate them (as long as no target is known).

Basically AI units gathers visive / auditive signals and use them to pinpoint and then reach a target.

Hey there :)

thanks for your reply. I set "bcombat_cover_radius" to 15,20 and it worked well in my opinion, the enemy was searching the area and 2 enemys was checking the house where i was hiding. They died both^^

Thx for your addon :)

[serpicowasright 10]

Is there any possibility of integration with PlayWithSix in the future?

[xrook 10]

i just witnessed a friendly AI keep spamming the words "fire at that tank" which is 800m away but noone wants to fire at the tank and i can clearly see it from his position/point of view, probably a vanilla problem but the "AT unit vs tanks (armored vehicles)" really need to be solved hoping if you could do it in your AI mod

[KaneSvK 1]

Hi, my AMD fx 6300 really struggles with many Ai s while using bcombat. Which settings do you think are causing the biggest cpu load and aren't necessarily essential? I'm considering turning off at least some features to get slightly better performance, but I don't really know which are worth turning off. Thanks (I'm playtesting 0.17 dev version)

[serjames 357]

How many Ai are you running at any time ?

I would suggest being more conservative on numbers, or using some sort of Caching would be more effective if you are getting slowdowns.

e.g. ALiVE or any of the other (can't remember them) scripts out there.

Sj

[KaneSvK 1]

How many Ai are you running at any time ?

I would suggest being more conservative on numbers, or using some sort of Caching would be more effective if you are getting slowdowns.

e.g. ALiVE or any of the other (can't remember them) scripts out there.

Sj

That's good advice and when making my own missions I'm utilizing Alive heavily. However for example even in armed assault showcase I'm getting to low 20ies in heavy firefight, especially later in the mission. Surprisingly it doesn't feel that choppy as one would expect from 20 fps.

I'm running my cpu on 4.5 ghz and I'm using custom malloc and all other tweaks one could think of. Still my fps is getting slaughtered in heavy firefights. I'm in range of 20-60 + fps.

Vanilla ai is out of question, after I tried bcombat I can't go back :-D. That's why I want to tweak it a little if possible. For example I already forbidden them using smoke nades

[serjames 357]

hmm, have you tried messing around with all the Object detail and Graphic settings ? Sounds crazy but they seem to be more reliant on CPU than GPU in many cases.

I'm not at all familiar with AMD cpus, (well not since I used to overclock Athlons) so have no real baseline to understand what you should be seeing.

To be honest I always play MP using dedicated servers, so my benchmarks would always be faster than yours. You could look into running the mission on a local dedicated server ?

My reasoning is that bCombat is just not that CPU intensive in my experience and AI numbers or Object count has far more responsibility for slow-downs.

As an exercise have you tried disabling bCombat and comparing speed ? I mean if it's truly bCOmbat that's killing it for you, then Gliptal or Fab would probably be able to advise some settings to try.

#wild Unit advertising mode on#

you COULD always simply come and play on our server, it's running a fairly vanilla set of mods at the moment as we've been having some stability issues (which may actually be in part due to running bCombat) so we've been going through the painful process of sticking with one mission (I&A - however much it sucks, it works) then adding mods one by one. Anyway if you fancy it filter for [3CB] or search for Server IP: 144.76.162.200 Port: 2362

Link to the Mods page http://www.3commandobrigade.com/viewtopic.php?f=57&t=1765&p=13754

Great FPS guaranteed, no need to worry about setting up missions... etc etc

You'll have the added benefit of real squadmates, who know what they're doing and play properly as a unit :)

#wild Unit advertising mode off#

[gepanzert-faust 10]

Hi all, could somebody please help me with my question about bCombat?

I am fairly new to the game and have been testing many AI mods to find out which one I like the best.

Will enabling the debug balloons in the config help show me bCombat's suppression system in action?

I am interested in comparing this system to the one featured in TPWCAS and in that mod enabling the balloons shows the current suppression states of each unit.

Could somebody please let me know how to "uncomment this line" from the config so I can enable the balloons, I'm afraid I really don't understand scripting and after many internet searches I'm still stumped about what that actually means :confused:

Thanks! :D

[gliptal 25]

To uncomment a line delete the leading //

Yay!

[fabrizio_t 58]

Hi, my AMD fx 6300 really struggles with many Ai s while using bcombat. Which settings do you think are causing the biggest cpu load and aren't necessarily essential? I'm considering turning off at least some features to get slightly better performance, but I don't really know which are worth turning off. Thanks (I'm playtesting 0.17 dev version)

Please try running the same mission with bCombat off, to be sure that it was the culprit of your FPS issues.

If you notice a massive difference you may try the following (in this order).

1) Set bcombat_allow_hearing = false;

By doing that you disallow the hearing enhancements, which add some computational overhead.

Try your mission again with bCombat active and check for improvements.

2) If the above gives no benefit please try setting bcombat_cqb_radar = false;

This way you disable AI CQB enhancements.

If you have persisting issues, then it's probably up with ballistic tracking overhead.

In that case things get more complicated, i'll let you know if necessary.

---

As a rule of thumb, hearing and CQB enhancements are the most CPU heavy -optional- features.

Smoke and grenade throwing follows.

This applies for close range, on longer distance units count and ballistics matter more.

---------- Post added at 17:18 ---------- Previous post was at 17:08 ----------

Will enabling the debug balloons in the config help show me bCombat's suppression system in action?

I am interested in comparing this system to the one featured in TPWCAS and in that mod enabling the balloons shows the current suppression states of each unit.

Could somebody please let me know how to "uncomment this line" from the config so I can enable the balloons, I'm afraid I really don't understand scripting and after many internet searches I'm still stumped about what that actually means :confused:

Thanks! :D

You may simply want to set bcombat_dev_mode = true within config.sqf.

By default it is false.

Debug balloons will show morale/suppression level with different colour, ranging from white to purple.

White means unsuppressed, green / blue / yellow mean light / medium / high suppression, red means panicing, purple means completely broken morale (fleeing or surrendering).

Units panicing will try to moving / crawly away, or spray wildly inaccurate fire if feeling cornered.

Edited August 16, 2014 by fabrizio_T

[KaneSvK 1]

Thanks Fabrizio, thats helpful. I will playtest it and see how it goes. I already tried with and without bcombat on the same mission, which showed that with bcombat enabled, FPS goes down for me.

Serjames: Yup, i already messed with graphic settings and set all the cpu intensive ones to lower values, but still it not exactly ideal :).

PS: thanks for server invite :D. I may come in time. Until now i was staying away from Arma 3 MP (even though i used to play arma 2 a lot) due to ppl saying it has lot worse performancethan SP. And as you can see i dont have steady FPS in SP either :).

[KaneSvK 1]

So I tested turning those 2 features off which helped a lot , while AI still remained a lot better than vanilla. Still I'm curious about that ballistic tracking. Can you please give me instructions to tweak it? I would like to try it and then decide if I want to keep it that way.

One question though. Turned off AI hearing,means that investigate feature doesn't work anymore?

[fabrizio_t 58]

So I tested turning those 2 features off which helped a lot , while AI still remained a lot better than vanilla. Still I'm curious about that ballistic tracking. Can you please give me instructions to tweak it? I would like to try it and then decide if I want to keep it that way.

One question though. Turned off AI hearing,means that investigate feature doesn't work anymore?

Ballistic tracking is handled via bDetect. Usually it does not need any fine-tuning, since is auto-adaptive with respect to FPS.

There is a number of variables, pertaining to bDetect, which control how far and how often some bullet is tracked, as well as variables controlling the radius of morale/suppression effect for units.

bCombat relies on all this info for decision-making.

What's peculiar of bCombat + underlying bDetect is that it relies ony checking and evaluating each and every bullet which has been fired, as long as your FPS stay high.

It's possible to degrade the frequency / accuracy of these checks, which is something bDetect does on its own, by continually monitoring your current FPS.

All the magic is contained within bdetect.sqf.

Most notable settings are bdetect_fps_adaptation, which enables FPS-adaptive routines and bdetect_fps_min, which is the FPS under which bDetect starts degrading its accuracy to reduce CPU overhead.

By putting hearing off investigate won't work anymore, i'm sorry.

That said, you may want to try reducing hearing radius, instead of putting it off altogether.

Try this combo:

bcombat_allow_hearing = true;	
bcombat_allow_hearing_coef = 6;	
bcombat_allow_hearing_grenade_distance = 100;

Let me know if this helps

---------- Post added at 19:56 ---------- Previous post was at 19:50 ----------

A bit OT, but worth saying:

I've just installed the latest A3MP package by Alduric and got back playtesting bCombat on my beloved Chernarus.

Let me say that the combat / tactical experience on Chernarus is so better that i think it's not even comparable to Altis / Stratis.

Plenty of tactical options, mostly due to quantity of cover and variety in horography.

Way better FPS.

Overall a way more rewarding and refreshing experience.

I'd highly recommend to give A3MP and Chernarus a try, despite the 4gigs download.

EDIT: by the way, i'm positive bCombat itself plays better on Chernarus.

Edited August 17, 2014 by fabrizio_T

[SgtDan_R 10]

Don't know if this was something you programmed into the mod, but I noticed today in one of my experiments that my 6 AI squad mates split into teams of two and managed to cover and reload without too much trouble. I've not seen that in ARMA 3 before unless its Co-op online.

One thing... if it's possible you can code it in, how about making the AI a little more useful with their secondary weapons/sidearms? I noticed the AI seem to really dislike using their sidearms.

Great mod though, makes infantry engagements a lot more interesting. Just wish there was a way to improve the AI following waypoints, driving/convoys and flying. :)

[LSD_Timewarp82 21]

Hey Fab, got a question:

do you know which values i need to choose that the AI would make things with "more Energy" kind of, i mean that they would be better as they are in default, just a little bit :)

Would be great if you could give me an advice or something :)

userconfig now (no changes, default settings)

/*
// 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};
};

// v0.14
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};
};

// v0.15
class CfgAISkill
{
aimingAccuracy[] = {0,0,1,0.7};
aimingSpeed[] = {0,0.5,1,1};
aimingShake[] = {0,0,1,1};
endurance[] = {0,0,1,1};
spotDistance[] = {0,0.2,1,0.6};
spotTime[] = {0,0.2,1,1};
courage[] = {0,0,1,1};
reloadSpeed[] = {0,0.2,1,1};
commanding[] = {0,0.2,1,1};
general[] = {0,0,1,1};
};

*/

class CfgAISkill
{
aimingAccuracy[] = {0,0,1,1};
aimingSpeed[] = {0,0.5,1,1};
aimingShake[] = {0,0.01,1,1};
endurance[] = {0,0,1,1};
spotDistance[] = {0,0.2,1,0.6};
spotTime[] = {0,0.01,1,1};
courage[] = {0,0,1,1};
reloadSpeed[] = {0,0.2,1,1};
commanding[] = {0,0.2,1,1};
general[] = {0,0.01,1,1};
};

[gepanzert-faust 10]

To uncomment a line delete the leading //

Yay!

Thanks, I really couldn't figure it out.

You may simply want to set bcombat_dev_mode = true within config.sqf.

By default it is false.

Debug balloons will show morale/suppression level with different colour, ranging from white to purple.

White means unsuppressed, green / blue / yellow mean light / medium / high suppression, red means panicing, purple means completely broken morale (fleeing or surrendering).

Units panicing will try to moving / crawly away, or spray wildly inaccurate fire if feeling cornered.

Thanks for the reply, I have it working now - its nice to see the mod in action.

I also have another question, could you elaborate a little more on the bCombat suppression system and how it compares to TPWCAS?

Will all weapons i.e. HMGs, GMGs, handgrenades, autocannons, mortars, bombs etc apply suppression to units the same way ordinary bullets do?

Also is there an option for suppression to affect the player in any way, for example screen blurring or shaking? My balloon stays white even under heavy fire :)

Thanks :)

EDIT: I keep seeing a black balloon appearing above certain units, what does that one mean? :confused:

Edited August 21, 2014 by Gepanzert-Faust

[fabrizio_t 58]

Hey Fab, got a question:

do you know which values i need to choose that the AI would make things with "more Energy" kind of, i mean that they would be better as they are in default, just a little bit :)

Would be great if you could give me an advice or something :)

userconfig now (no changes, default settings)

/*
// 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};
};

// v0.14
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};
};

// v0.15
class CfgAISkill
{
aimingAccuracy[] = {0,0,1,0.7};
aimingSpeed[] = {0,0.5,1,1};
aimingShake[] = {0,0,1,1};
endurance[] = {0,0,1,1};
spotDistance[] = {0,0.2,1,0.6};
spotTime[] = {0,0.2,1,1};
courage[] = {0,0,1,1};
reloadSpeed[] = {0,0.2,1,1};
commanding[] = {0,0.2,1,1};
general[] = {0,0,1,1};
};

*/

class CfgAISkill
{
aimingAccuracy[] = {0,0,1,1};
aimingSpeed[] = {0,0.5,1,1};
aimingShake[] = {0,0.01,1,1};
endurance[] = {0,0,1,1};
spotDistance[] = {0,0.2,1,0.6};
spotTime[] = {0,0.01,1,1};
courage[] = {0,0,1,1};
reloadSpeed[] = {0,0.2,1,1};
commanding[] = {0,0.2,1,1};
general[] = {0,0.01,1,1};
};

OPTION #1

You may want to raise a little bit minimum "courage" (second number of the four). Try 0,2.

Courage increases units aggressiveness, mobility and initiative.

Pitfall for sensibly increasing that: groups may lose cohesion, leaders may outpace their units.

OPTION #2

You may tweak min and max "spotDistance" (second, fourth values of the four). Try 0,3 and 0,7.

An increased spotting distance leads to earlier enemy detection, early maneuvering.

Pitfall for sensibly increasing that: units may stay "locked" to their target from greater distance, being more reluctant to break contact, fall into formation, exit combat mode. Stealth approach will also suffer.

OPTION #3

Finally you may tweak "commanding". Try raising minimum value (second number of the four) to 0,3.

Commanding controls the frequency for leader issuing attack orders.

Pitfall for sensibly increasing that: again, groups may lose cohesion due to multiple units being sent to attack and acting individually or by team.

As a rule of thumb reduce this if you increased "courage", and viceversa.

As you see balancing is very delicate, after altering the default config results are unpredictable, extensive playtesting is needed.

---------- Post added at 08:22 ---------- Previous post was at 08:18 ----------

Don't know if this was something you programmed into the mod, but I noticed today in one of my experiments that my 6 AI squad mates split into teams of two and managed to cover and reload without too much trouble. I've not seen that in ARMA 3 before unless its Co-op online.

One thing... if it's possible you can code it in, how about making the AI a little more useful with their secondary weapons/sidearms? I noticed the AI seem to really dislike using their sidearms.

Great mod though, makes infantry engagements a lot more interesting. Just wish there was a way to improve the AI following waypoints, driving/convoys and flying. :)

That' a vanilla feature, which is being unleashed by bCombat.

Basically leader issues an attack order to 2 or more units and they move and act as a team.

Depending on circumstances they may split and proceed individually however (e.g. fast move).

Edited August 22, 2014 by fabrizio_T

[LSD_Timewarp82 21]

Thx for reply, i will use your provided settings in a few minutes. Dont worry, extensive Playtesting is no problem for me (3481 Hours, Arma3) :)

So i have to edit the values only in the bottoms list "class CfgAISkill" ?

[fabrizio_t 58]

Thanks, I really couldn't figure it out.

Thanks for the reply, I have it working now - its nice to see the mod in action.

I also have another question, could you elaborate a little more on the bCombat suppression system and how it compares to TPWCAS?

Will all weapons i.e. HMGs, GMGs, handgrenades, autocannons, mortars, bombs etc apply suppression to units the same way ordinary bullets do?

Also is there an option for suppression to affect the player in any way, for example screen blurring or shaking? My balloon stays white even under heavy fire :)

Thanks :)

EDIT: I keep seeing a black balloon appearing above certain units, what does that one mean? :confused:

Not sure about the black balloon, i can't reproduce the issue.

Player is unsuppressed, i've considered adding suppression effects to him, but not everybody seemed liking such a feature.

Any bullets fired by enemy would cause suppression to AI. Spawned bullets (e.g. virtual artillery) won't.

About TPWCAS vs bCombat: the biggest difference is in bCombat suppression effects are just a part of morale effects.

Morale is affected by both gunfire / suppression as well as by "events" such ad unit being wounded, sight of threatening enemies, friendly casualties, unexpected attacks (ambush).

Suppression itself is driven by many criteria. Some are inherited by RTS games logic: for instance being fired from flank, from back, from an unknown enemy or from higher ground causes different, higher suppression effects.

That's very important, since it encourages tactical gameplay by player too (e.g. pinning enemy, flanking / maneuvering, using high terrain to take tactical advantage).

Another main difference is that AI units try adapting to circumstances. For instance, while in combat mode, they don't behave the same way when advancing vs. advancing under fire.

Also some kinds of units, namely machinegunners, have specialized overwatch behaviour: on contact they basically act as "pivots" and fire bases.

They lay suppression fire, attracting enemy fire. By doing so they allow for broader tactical movement (usually advancing / flanking) of the rest of the group.

So bCombat is different from TPWCAS, as its goal is modeling a more "human-alike" behaviour, rather than implementing straight suppression.

---------- Post added at 08:48 ---------- Previous post was at 08:46 ----------

So i have to edit the values only in the bottoms list "class CfgAISkill" ?

Yes, just the last one.

[sttosin 67]

Fabrizio_T,

How do you determine who is a machine gunner? Is it by the classname of the unit? Or is it by the weapon they are carrying? I use custom loadouts for my AI squad members but they are of JTAC unit type carrying Toadie's M60E just to match the look of the mission I am creating. Will the suppression parameters for MG work for them as well?

[fabrizio_t 58]

Fabrizio_T,

How do you determine who is a machine gunner? Is it by the classname of the unit? Or is it by the weapon they are carrying? I use custom loadouts for my AI squad members but they are of JTAC unit type carrying Toadie's M60E just to match the look of the mission I am creating. Will the suppression parameters for MG work for them as well?

I determine that by checking existence of some config attribute for the weapon ("aidispersioncoefx").

That has proved to be almost reliable. As long as "aidispersioncoefx" is properly set-up for acustom weapon, it will be considered as a machinegun.

For reference, take a look to bcombat_fnc_is_mgun function within common.sqf, it's self-explanatory.

---------- Post added at 08:26 ---------- Previous post was at 08:24 ----------

an heads-up: we have some massive pathfinding issues with latest DEV builds. Not bCombat fault ...

See here: http://forums.bistudio.com/showthread.php?152866-General-Discussion-(dev-branch)&p=2759248&viewfull=1#post2759248

Try making a couple AI groups move through Kavala (SW of Altis) and see for yourself.

[sttosin 67]

Thanks for the explanation Fabrizio_T. I am going to research/ask on Toadie's HLC weapons pack.