[OPEN BETA] [SP] bCombat infantry AI Mod

[pulstar 55]

It would be nice if bCombat makes footmobiles run into cover when an IFV is within a feasible range.

[fabrizio_t 58]

Hey - I guess I'm really late to the party. First of all thank you for this mod, it's like a brain upgrade for the AI!

My group just ran a small (4 vs 16 enemies) test run of bcombat 0.18 (running on dedicated).

Scenario:

We invaded Charkia from the south with AR team up on the SE hill fo the Mine and TL/Grenadier advancing directly from S. Enemy teams were split up in 4 man fireteams (no grenadiers) dispersed throughout Charkia. Test went for about 4 hours.

Positive things we noted:

- AI "hunting" you down when you are pulling back or going into hard cover is really eerie, never before have we been pinned down that good, even in a CQB-ish environment.

- Smoke grenade throwing surprised all of us and forced us to do a tactical retreat because we lost sight of our prior contacts. Great!

- "Investigative" behaviour was really something we hadn't thought of. Some AI was actually flanking us trying to check out the vehicle we had abandoned. When we returned to the vehicle to regroup we got wasted

- Worked fine on dedicated, barely any performance hit (2-3 fps).

Nice to hear.

By the way, may i suggest a tip? Best way to attack Charkia would be from NW (windmills crest) and NE (storage area).

This way you'd take advantage of higher ground, and this does matter in bCombat (lower ground penalty on enemy).

Attacking from multiple directions at the same time matters too (flanking penalty on enemy).

Negative things / Constructive feedback:

- Open field combat. Once the AI charged us into open terrain, they seemed a bit clueless, sometimes even wandering in "careless" mode while flanking, made them very easy to take down

- Retreat mode - as soon as we had outrun the enemy AI (about 800ms or so), they all turned around and moved to their prior positions, it would be cool if a buddy team remained to act as spotters at position of last place of engagement.

- "Open field": on open terrain, when cover is sparse, one of the main features of the mod ( move to nearby cover) goes missing. This said, if you saw units moving in "CARELESS" mode then bCombat was not in charge, as that's a vanilla behaviour.

- "Retreat mode": again that's basically vanilla behaviour. Most of bCombat features won't affect behaviour past about 500-600 meters of distance from threats. At < 500 meters bCombat uses its own ROE, meaning that groups are commanded to investigate or fall back depending on criteria such as waypoint type, distance from current leader's position and combat mode.

Questions gathered:

- How does server difficulty profile / skill setting influence bcombat? The impression was that they were a "tad" more accurate than usually and engaged at longer ranges.

- Does AI decide that they have the winning hand and "rush"? We had the impression that although we at first overwhelmed them with firepower (AR team suppressing & 40mm grenades), eventually they decided that they had the numbers going for them and advanced aggressively (was totally ok, we just weren't sure if that was bcombat or vanilla behaviour).

- Is bcombat inclusive to units on static weapons? We had the impression that one guard on a .50 cal was playing in god mode (do they use thermal?).

- Can't answer about skill issue on server, i'd say it should be the same as SP.

- While bCombat does not explicitly calculate the odds / chance to win a clash ( as that implies a higher level strategical evaluation ), groups definetely behave differently depending on balance of forces on the field.

This happens fluidly and naturally: as soon a side significatively outweights the other in terms of actual volume of fire, the latter gets noticeably hindered by a suppression effect, meaning accuracy, courage and chance to return fire are progresively reduced.

Units suffering suppression effects tend to prefer escaping rather than engaging, while unsuppressed units act quite aggressively.

- bCombat does not affect in any way units in vehicles, static weapons included. As soon as some foot units enters any vehicle bCombat switches off for it. It switches on again as soon as its disembarks.

---------- Post added at 20:23 ---------- Previous post was at 19:59 ----------

Now let me share a few tips for newcomers:

DID YOU KNOW THAT ...

... HIGH GROUND MATTERS

The suppression effect caused by gunfire is increased when firing from higher ground.

This works both ways, so be careful when attacking from lower ground.

... ENEMY HEARS YOUR SHOTS

Enemy AI can hear your shots across hundreds of meters.

Given its ROE it may move to investigate the "perceived" fire position.

You may want to exploit this behaviour.

... FLANKING MATTERS

Try flanking whenever possible.

Remember that flanking requires splitting your forces, as you can't flank by just moving all your forces on one side of enemy: if you do so you'll usually get flanked by AI.

If you manage to attack enemy from multiple directions simultaneously the overall suppression fire effect will be increased.

... SNEAKING UNALERTED ENEMY IS REWARDING

If you manage to sneak close enough to some enemy on SAFE behaviour you'll temporarily inflict a greater suppression effect as soon as you'll open fire.

... BULDINGS ARE NOT SAFE ANYMORE

Enemy AI is able to pinpoint and reach you even into buildings, following the noise of your shots.

... GRENADES ARE DEADLY

Enemy AI can lob a grenade at your feet from 5 meters to about 40 meters. It can lob it over obstracles such as roofs and without a clear line of sight, so watch out.

... SMOKE IS EFFECTIVE

Enemy AI uses smoke as an effective defensive measure, usually to conceal its movement to cover when pinned in the open.

You can do the same.

[to be continued]

Edited May 22, 2015 by fabrizio_T

[gatordev 219]

- While bCombat does not explicitly calculate the odds / chance to win a clash ( as that implies a higher level strategical evaluation ), groups definetely behave differently depending on balance of forces on the field.

This happens fluidly and naturally: as soon a side significatively outweights the other in terms of actual volume of fire, the latter gets noticeably hindered by a suppression effect, meaning accuracy, courage and chance to return fire are progresively reduced.

Units suffering suppression effects tend to prefer escaping rather than engaging, while unsuppressed units act quite aggressively.

This continues to be a big selling point for me. When playing on the same mission I made using different tactics, I've watched the effects of this and it's fantastic. If I have 2-3 fireteams move in against 5-6 enemy fireteams, things get bogged down. Bring in some sort of motorized support (HMMWV or MRAP), and all of a sudden the tide of battle changes and friendlies don't get bogged down (other than getting caught up on objects, but that's a whole other issue).

Hope you keep working on this, fabrizio. It's great stuff.

[lukio 18]

Hey fabrizio, thanks for filling in some blanks and clearing up when and how Vanilla mode kicks in. We just did a small session tonight and it got very intense with the AI showing some unexpected and sneaky behaviour! Let it be known that your AI mod is making our small scale missions far more intense and enjoyable than they were ever before :-)

[alanford 27]

Okay so I have made a short video of some AI doing their thing. I don't think bCombat is working for me, but can you look at the video and tell me whether or not this is expected behavior? The AI have not cleared a building when they knew an enemy as inside. And they had VAST numerical and tactical advantage.

[Tyl3r99 41]

i hope bcombat can receive some future updates and features though its an AWESOME AI mod.

just wish PWS fixes the issue of missing files already...

[fabrizio_t 58]

Okay so I have made a short video of some AI doing their thing. I don't think bCombat is working for me, but can you look at the video and tell me whether or not this is expected behavior? The AI have not cleared a building when they knew an enemy as inside. And they had VAST numerical and tactical advantage.

I've watched your video, i see OPFOR units killing the BLUFOR unit inside the building, then they fall back in formation at about 8:00 minutes ...

[kecharles28 197]

Updated mod v0.18.2.1 available at withSIX. Download now by clicking:

Hey fabrizio_T , you can upload updates or new mods to withSIX yourself now!

Make your own promo page, get the power to release your work at your own point of choosing.

To learn more, follow this guide.

[Cossack monk 11]

fabrizio_T ,-Thank you for such a wonderful fashion, Your fashion is the best! Great!

[Tyl3r99 41]

I've watched your video, i see OPFOR units killing the BLUFOR unit inside the building, then they fall back in formation at about 8:00 minutes ...

imo they kinda did it a bit slow, and did not physically enter the building and clear it :(

could that be a possible feature request :)

[lukio 18]

Hey I'm back with a further (albeit more technical question). As I posted a few days ago our group was quite satisfied with bcombat test and decided to use it on official server for a small event. Surprisingly none of bcombat's "shoeshine" was visible, actually behaviour was almost like vanilla AI. So after going through logfiles we noticed the following error message:

20:3 1:11 Warning Message: FSM '@bcombat\fsm\danger.fsm' cannot be loaded.

@bcombat is in the main arma3 dir, not the seperate mods dir and it gets loaded correctly, ie. appears as bcombat AI mod v. 018 BETA and in server startup it appears with hash and has the correct path.

So I know the following is true:

bcombat is still in beta

bcombat is aimed at SP

Is it possible that this is an issue with the hard coded directory paths \ vs / as our test system was Windows, but the server is running Linux (mods running were CBA3 1.20, TFAR, RHS, AGM)

If yes, then please tell me that this is something you may look into :)

If not then I think it may be better to wait until this great AI mod gets the stamp of MP compatability approval.

[Thorkell250 10]

I installed the mod with Play with Six but when I start the game it gives me the next error:

"Script @bcombat\bcombat.sqf not found"

The mod worked well until I updated to this version

And thanks for the mod, it's a must to SP.

[legolasindar 3]

Updated mod v0.18.2.1 available at withSIX. Download now by clicking:

https://withsix-usercontent-cdn.withsix.com/mod/0ae46a60-7203-11e3-8e14-001517bd964c/logos/banner-420x120.png

Hey fabrizio_T , you can upload updates or new mods to withSIX yourself now!

Make your own promo page, get the power to release your work at your own point of choosing.

To learn more, follow this guide.

What is this? i not hear nothing about new version, this is oficial?

[echoj7 11]

I can't seem to get this to work on dedicated server, I know it's not supported but people have had some success. That being said I only ever use Zeus based unit creation, is it possible bcombat ai is not applied to units created via zeus?

[t-800a 151]

Units created by Zeus are local / belong to the Zeus user, and so any AI mod running on the server only wont affect them.

[echoj7 11]

t-800a, thanks however the client (me) and server (my dedicate) both had bcombat and cba. I put bcombat into debug mode on both client and configs sqf.

[fabrizio_t 58]

Hey I'm back with a further (albeit more technical question). As I posted a few days ago our group was quite satisfied with bcombat test and decided to use it on official server for a small event. Surprisingly none of bcombat's "shoeshine" was visible, actually behaviour was almost like vanilla AI. So after going through logfiles we noticed the following error message:

@bcombat is in the main arma3 dir, not the seperate mods dir and it gets loaded correctly, ie. appears as bcombat AI mod v. 018 BETA and in server startup it appears with hash and has the correct path.

So I know the following is true:

bcombat is still in beta

bcombat is aimed at SP

Is it possible that this is an issue with the hard coded directory paths \ vs / as our test system was Windows, but the server is running Linux (mods running were CBA3 1.20, TFAR, RHS, AGM)

If yes, then please tell me that this is something you may look into :)

If not then I think it may be better to wait until this great AI mod gets the stamp of MP compatability approval.

Interesting issue. Possibly it's a case-sensitivity problem with names (eg. "bCombat" vs "bcombat" ) or path, not sure.

I'd think so since case sensitivity applies under Linux, but i've no real evidence of any problems at the moment.

---------- Post added at 15:11 ---------- Previous post was at 15:09 ----------

Updated mod v0.18.2.1 available at withSIX. Download now by clicking:

https://withsix-usercontent-cdn.withsix.com/mod/0ae46a60-7203-11e3-8e14-001517bd964c/logos/banner-420x120.png

Hey fabrizio_T , you can upload updates or new mods to withSIX yourself now!

Make your own promo page, get the power to release your work at your own point of choosing.

To learn more, follow this guide.

May i ask what's the content for this update?

I've released no updates.

[Tyl3r99 41]

May i ask what's the content for this update?

I've released no updates.

Ah this is my doing mate, PWS had an issue where it was missing files in the latest update.

---------- Post added at 18:07 ---------- Previous post was at 18:05 ----------

ive pm'd you details

[ChuWie 11]

[...] I've released no updates.

Hi fabrizio,

are there any plans on releasing updates any time soon? Tweaking some settings? Adding new features? Fixing some bugs?

Tweaking

- Since one of the recent ArmA patches, ArmA comes with a vanilla suppression behaviour. Isn't it conflicting with bcombat's own suppression or waste of CPU cycles if both are running at the same time?

New features

- I've seen some nice features being mentioned here already but never saw any direct reply to them by you.

Better auto healing / enhanced medic system, auto resupply, stay in body groups of minimum 2, nearby mortar requests, using flares at night, etc.

Bugs

- Just recently I discovered that AI refuses to throw colored smoke to conceal themselves and rather don't throw any smoke at all when no white smoke grenades are in their inventory.

I'm really enjoying bcombat at its current state. I love the dynamic and the speed of engagements, it's brilliant.

But I'm also curious if you are planing to enhance the mod even more :)

Cheers

[lukio 18]

Interesting issue. Possibly it's a case-sensitivity problem with names (eg. "bCombat" vs "bcombat" ) or path, not sure.

I'd think so since case sensitivity applies under Linux, but i've no real evidence of any problems at the moment.

Well I'll just hope that anyone else running it as MP mod on a linux server chimes in. Will fiddle around with permissions and checking the error logs.

Did I already say thanks for this great AI mod? Anyway - thank you!

[ebarstad 18]

Hi fabrizio,

are there any plans on releasing updates any time soon? Tweaking some settings? Adding new features? Fixing some bugs?

Tweaking

- Since one of the recent ArmA patches, ArmA comes with a vanilla suppression behaviour. Isn't it conflicting with bcombat's own suppression or waste of CPU cycles if both are running at the same time?

New features

- I've seen some nice features being mentioned here already but never saw any direct reply to them by you.

Better auto healing / enhanced medic system, auto resupply, stay in body groups of minimum 2, nearby mortar requests, using flares at night, etc.

Bugs

- Just recently I discovered that AI refuses to throw colored smoke to conceal themselves and rather don't throw any smoke at all when no white smoke grenades are in their inventory.

I'm really enjoying bcombat at its current state. I love the dynamic and the speed of engagements, it's brilliant.

But I'm also curious if you are planing to enhance the mod even more :)

Cheers

You can disable bcombat's suppression in the config. The AI threw coloured smoke the last time I played, which was about a week ago or so.

[serjames 357]

Fab, is it worth setting the BIS suppression routine to be Default now... if it's not already...

Changing config's is tricky for clan use.

Cheers

SJ

[fabrizio_t 58]

Fab, is it worth setting the BIS suppression routine to be Default now... if it's not already...

Changing config's is tricky for clan use.

Cheers

SJ

Yes, BIS suppression works okay.

It will be default in next update.

---------- Post added at 20:36 ---------- Previous post was at 20:25 ----------

Hi fabrizio,

are there any plans on releasing updates any time soon? Tweaking some settings? Adding new features? Fixing some bugs?

Tweaking

- Since one of the recent ArmA patches, ArmA comes with a vanilla suppression behaviour. Isn't it conflicting with bcombat's own suppression or waste of CPU cycles if both are running at the same time?

New features

- I've seen some nice features being mentioned here already but never saw any direct reply to them by you.

Better auto healing / enhanced medic system, auto resupply, stay in body groups of minimum 2, nearby mortar requests, using flares at night, etc.

Bugs

- Just recently I discovered that AI refuses to throw colored smoke to conceal themselves and rather don't throw any smoke at all when no white smoke grenades are in their inventory.

I'm really enjoying bcombat at its current state. I love the dynamic and the speed of engagements, it's brilliant.

But I'm also curious if you are planing to enhance the mod even more :)

Cheers

Hi ChuWie,

thanks for feedback.

I restricted smoke handling to white smoke in order to keep other colors for signals, good for "humans" play and less confusion.

Vanilla and bCombat suppression work differently for most part, however you can easily reduce the penalty caused by bullets / explosions from within config.sqf.

This way units won't suffer "stacked" penalties from enemy fire.

bCombat already makes medics supporting faster, basically by not prioritizing other tasks against that.

I don't plan to make an alternative medic system, there are already a few.

Since v0.18 AI Units usually don't move alone, unless they're ordered to do some very specific tasks (e.g commanded to attack somebody).

For instance, if they're moving alone and their destination is close to the one of a nearby, higher ranking unit, they will follow it.

Other features will come,

but i have to sort my job issues first.

Hence the slowness.

[Bucic 1]

Yes, BIS suppression works okay.

It will be default in next update.

I don't think it's a good idea. Yesterday I cought an enemy AI soldier off guard by jumping from around a corner of a building with my weapon ready to fire, aimed at him. He was standing straight in some idle animation, clearly not in an alerted mode. I have put a burst of at least 3 6.5 mm rounds right into his chest. The distance was ~5 meters. Within less than ~0.5 seconds he fired back at me and killed me on the spot.

Unmodded ArmA 1.44 it was...

[Bucic 1]

What does the configSP.sqf do, by the way?