[OPEN BETA] [SP] bCombat infantry AI Mod

[kremator 1064]

Ooooooh sounds great Fab !!

If there is anything you need tested prior to going onto next release then just ask.

Edited March 1, 2014 by Kremator

[LSD_Timewarp82 21]

Hoping for a downloadable file today ^^

[fabrizio_t 58]

The brave may wish to pick bCombat v0.16 RC from GitHub.

It was freshly committed a few minutes ago. Testing is undergoing.

If you want to check it out please:

• Stick to installation instructions, read the readme.
  
• Debug mode is on by default. Disable it by setting bcombat_dev_mode = false; within config.sqf.
  

Here is changelog candidate, as of current RC build.

v0.16
-----

Core features:

* Fixed: HandleDamage EH related issue, possibly breaking respawn scripts (thanks LSD_Timewarp82).
* Fixed: bug somewhat reducing responsiveness of suppressed units.
* Fixed: bug in grenade handling (thanks Torndeco).
* Fixed: AI units not scared by campfires anymore.
* New: Added 1 second post-spawn delay for unit initialization. Done in order to allow custom / third party scripts to be executed in the meantime.
* New: a few configuration variables within config.sqf.
* Tweaked: sensibly reduced spotting ability (about -50%) at night, for AI units wearing no night vision devices. 
* Tweaked: AI spotting ability sensibly affected by fog.
* Tweaked: bullet penalties rebalanced.
* Tweaked: AI aiming accuracy slightly increased in average.
* Tweaked: damage multiplier: damage from null source (e.g. from falling or setDamage ) is not multiplied anymore. For sake of campaign compatibility.
* Tweaked: AI units' peripheral vision.

Optional features:

* Fixed: ArmA3 v1.10 compatible custom grenade and smoke throwing.
* New: lower ground penalty: Firing from lower ground reduces effectiveness of suppressive fire (and viceversa).
* Tweaked: further improvements to hearing and investigate behaviour 

Edited March 1, 2014 by fabrizio_T

[LSD_Timewarp82 21]

"Power is nothing without control" or "Changelog is nothing without a file" ^^ ;)

Looking forward for the release :o

[fabrizio_t 58]

"Power is nothing without control" or "Changelog is nothing without a file" ^^ ;)

Looking forward for the release :o

See the Github link ;)

If you prefer the direct link to the .zip, here it is.

Edited March 1, 2014 by fabrizio_T

[kremator 1064]

Awesome Fab ... I always check the GIThub, but it hadn't been updated in a while. Grabbing latest now !

[bravo409 13]

dont forget to make a video of your findings.:cool:

[Rydygier 1302]

Hi, fabrizio_T, I want bring your attention on some problem spotted lately on 0.15:

Many AIs case

Not sure, if you want or can do anything about, after all we are talking about lots of AIs, but IMHO something can be done (like player distance/enabled simulation checks regarding to decide, if do calculations or not, and replacing "one loop spawn per unit" with one loop through all units... do not know, what else, didn't study yours great code too deeply).

[Queleab 10]

I just tried the new version and now I'm afraid cqb figths again, They have a very significant capacity for precision :eek: I have ended with 2 grenades under my feet! :cool:

Good job fabrizio!

[fabrizio_t 58]

Hi, fabrizio_T, I want bring your attention on some problem spotted lately on 0.15:

Many AIs case

Not sure, if you want or can do anything about, after all we are talking about lots of AIs, but IMHO something can be done (like player distance/enabled simulation checks regarding to decide, if do calculations or not, and replacing "one loop spawn per unit" with one loop through all units... do not know, what else, didn't study yours great code too deeply).

Hi Rydygier,

200 groups / 1000 AI is quite massive in my opinion.

That said, there's obviously room for performance optimization within bCombat.

The single loop for unit (within unit.sqf) is hardly the culprit in my opinion.

It's executed each 3-6 seconds.

The problem is probably the high number of scripts being spawned at runtime, due to a sheer number of units firing / fighing .

This includes real time ballisics tracking scripts (bDetect).

Disabling some optional features within bCombat config.sqf should help a bit.

For instance putting:

bcombat_allow_hearing = false;
bcombat_allow_investigate = false;
bcombat_cqb_radar = false;	
bcombat_allow_fleeing = false;	

should reduce the overhead in a crowded combat situation.

A more clean and viable solution would be, as you suggest, cutting features based on a player distance threshold.

I think it's feasible and i'll consider adding that.

EDIT:

It turned being easier than expected.

A new variable is going to be introduced into upcoming bCombat v0.16RC2:

bcombat_degradation_distance = 1500;				// (Meters)  some bCombat features are cut when some unit is farther than this from player

This should help solving the issue.

Edited March 1, 2014 by fabrizio_T

[Guest]

Thanks for informing us about the updated version :cool:

New version frontpaged on the Armaholic homepage.

bCombat infantry AI Mod v0.16



Community Base addons A3

================================================

We have also "connected" these pages to your account on Armaholic.

This means in the future you will be able to maintain these pages yourself if you wish to do so. Once this new feature is ready we will contact you about it and explain how things work and what options you have.

When you have any questions already feel free to PM or email me!

[Rydygier 1302]

Hi Rydygier,

200 groups / 1000 AI is quite massive in my opinion.

That said, there's obviously room for performance optimization within bCombat.

The single loop for unit (within unit.sqf) is hardly the culprit in my opinion.

It's executed each 3-6 seconds.

The problem is probably the high number of scripts being spawned at runtime, due to a sheer number of units firing / fighing .

This includes real time ballisics tracking scripts (bDetect).

Thanks. :)

To be precise I'm not saying, that single loop for unit is culprit. Culprit is massive amount of single loops, each as separate thread. 1000 threads. My propositions was to replace 1000 loops, one per unit with only one, main thread including loop cyclically checking all (1000) units. Not sure, if possible though, each check will take some time, that means delay, but still effect would be much better than current for such amounts of AIs.

In this case there is no any fightings nor even movements amongst those 1000 AI. All are allied with each other, separated by single groups and, most important, cached (disabled simulation and hide). From the other hand I did once some tests and spawned many empty loops. This chocked completely scheduler, while one loop with massive code inside and decent sleep does not. Thus my conclusion - the less spawned loops the better. Anyway, if there is no fightings at all nor any other activity, and still scheduler is full, that leads to conclusion, that amount of spawned threads with loops itself is a cause here. IMHO of course.

[hyzoran 17]

Does this mod have plans to improve Vehicle AI as well? (Such as APCs, MBTs, Artillery, Helis, MRAPs, and Fixed Wing)? I find that AI drivers and pilots are not very self-preservent, often not taking very intelligent maneuvers to protect themselves and their vehicles. Also, While testing 0.15, I find that AI are absolutely horrible with dumb-fire launchers, they often miss even at ranges of 50m, (An example being Beyond Recognition, where I instruct my Ai to engage the truck at the start with his launcher, and misses 100% of the time (With All AI settings set to max except super AI). AI should always hit under certain distances, while AI of higher skill levels should be much more accurate at longer distances with Dumb-fire launchers.

Additionally, I find that AI put far too little priority on destroying Combat Vehicles. Combat Vehicles should be neutralized immediately upon detection, as they are deadly accurate due to no recoil and explosive munitions. (Only attempting to engage if they find that they are in an acceptable range for their Launcher)

Also, this is an A3 issue, but whenever I tell AT or AA infantry to engage vehicles they always pull their weapons out only to stare at it and readjust formation occaisionally but never fire. I wonder if there was a way for you guys to fix this issue.

[bravo409 13]

Im getting a error script @bcombat\unit.sqf not found...its in the folder so I dont know why it can not find it.

[LowFlyZone 10]

Thanks for the update, looking forward to the fixes/changes especially grenades :cool:

[LSD_Timewarp82 21]

Respawnfunction at WholeLotta.. doesnt work :(

[fabrizio_t 58]

Respawnfunction at WholeLotta.. doesnt work :(

Thank you, i'm going to look into this tomorrow.

---------- Post added at 00:49 ---------- Previous post was at 00:48 ----------

Im getting a error script @bcombat\unit.sqf not found...its in the folder so I dont know why it can not find it.

Looks like a path / installation issue.

Please doublecheck your installation was done exactly as requested in readme.md.

---------- Post added at 00:59 ---------- Previous post was at 00:49 ----------

Does this mod have plans to improve Vehicle AI as well? (Such as APCs, MBTs, Artillery, Helis, MRAPs, and Fixed Wing)? I find that AI drivers and pilots are not very self-preservent, often not taking very intelligent maneuvers to protect themselves and their vehicles. Also, While testing 0.15, I find that AI are absolutely horrible with dumb-fire launchers, they often miss even at ranges of 50m, (An example being Beyond Recognition, where I instruct my Ai to engage the truck at the start with his launcher, and misses 100% of the time (With All AI settings set to max except super AI). AI should always hit under certain distances, while AI of higher skill levels should be much more accurate at longer distances with Dumb-fire launchers.

Additionally, I find that AI put far too little priority on destroying Combat Vehicles. Combat Vehicles should be neutralized immediately upon detection, as they are deadly accurate due to no recoil and explosive munitions. (Only attempting to engage if they find that they are in an acceptable range for their Launcher)

Also, this is an A3 issue, but whenever I tell AT or AA infantry to engage vehicles they always pull their weapons out only to stare at it and readjust formation occaisionally but never fire. I wonder if there was a way for you guys to fix this issue.

bCombat is skipping any units boarding vehicles, basically because vehicle pathfinding has many issues.

No plans to change this, unless BIS fixes pathfinding.

Aiming accuracy for launchers is something i plan further tweaking.

That said, bCombat reduces accuracy for lower skills, but it does not modify it for max. skill, hence what you experimented looks strange. Also i can't repro the issue.

Did you eventually manually tweak precisionFriendly / precisionEnemy values ?

Target prioritization is another area i'd like to address in the future.

[kremator 1064]

Had a little MP session with bCombat (solo play on listen server, DEV version) and I must say I'm liking this new version! Plenty of smoke, nades and tactical positioning in CQB. I may have to turn up my accuracy a little bit as I saw two enemy round a corner firing at eachother at 10 paces and they missed EVERY shot for 6 seconds !

Apart from that, MUCH improvement Fab!

[sttosin 67]

Yes @fabrizio_T version .16RC is playing very well. I also used it with great results with ASR + UPSMON in my mission. Good to see the smoke and frags back. I recall you we working on new throwing animations as well. Can't wait to see what you cook up.

[Jackson Snow 10]

Played around four hours with the new version last night - definitely made for some very tense urban combat. They were really pinning us down, hiding in ruined buildings, etc. One time I'd forgotten to clear the upstairs, was taking fire, shooting out the door when I hear footsteps on the stairs...

The sneaky things also appeared to be using dead bodies as cover a couple of times - was this just coincidence? Twice me and my friend got shot up by a guy we hadn't seen as he was between a couple of dead bodies; only when he moved did we notice him.

We didn't notice any grenades or smoke though, unfortunately, but maybe there just wasn't a situation where they would use them. EDIT: I think this was probably due to many AI slowing the server; tested it on a less busy mission and it worked great.

Edited March 2, 2014 by Jackson Snow

[Brutal500 10]

Yes @fabrizio_T version .16RC is playing very well. I also used it with great results with ASR + UPSMON in my mission. Good to see the smoke and frags back. I recall you we working on new throwing animations as well. Can't wait to see what you cook up.

I was under the impression that ASR and Bcombat did some of things the same ? right ?

so there must be some conflict, and if so then my question is "Does it lower your performance ?"

[sttosin 67]

Yes there will be conflicts. I don't think @Fabrizio officially supports using with any other AI mod. I do need the rearm features of ASR so I use it as discussed here: http://forums.bistudio.com/showthread.php?p=2630793

Yes I referenced a comment about a comment....doing this from a phone.

UPSMON for AI patrol and battle coordination at least until bcommand.

My performance issues are mostly attributed to how many AI I have on the map at time.

[LSD_Timewarp82 21]

Hi, something new due the WholeLotta Respawnbug?

[b0s 18]

Hi

Good to have grenades back... thank you very much!

Noticed that using bcombat and latest devbranch, vehicles dont react to far infantry. 800m distance and firing AT at APCs with no reaction. If I gave ta APCs a seek&destroy wp, they moved in to 400m and then started shooting. Without bcombat the APCs fired back, but did not move also.

edit:

aslo got a error

[ _unit, 1, |#|_penalty, time + 5, time + 10+ random 1...

Undefinder variable _penalty

suppression.sqf line 117

Edited March 2, 2014 by b0s

[fabrizio_t 58]

Hi, something new due the WholeLotta Respawnbug?

It's already solved in my internal dev build, i'm investigating the effects of the fix on other features, namely damage multiplier.

---------- Post added at 16:26 ---------- Previous post was at 16:23 ----------

I was under the impression that ASR and Bcombat did some of things the same ? right ?

so there must be some conflict, and if so then my question is "Does it lower your performance ?"

Many features would overlap, one of the two mods would break.

Performance is definetely not an issue when up to 200 AI units are on the battlefield (thoroughly tested on my notebook).

I didn't test high numbers, i've received reports of slowdowns when several hundreds of units are on the ground, which should be uncommon.

That said upcoming v0.16 RC2 is expected to lessen even this kind of problems.

---------- Post added at 16:28 ---------- Previous post was at 16:26 ----------

The sneaky things also appeared to be using dead bodies as cover a couple of times - was this just coincidence? Twice me and my friend got shot up by a guy we hadn't seen as he was between a couple of dead bodies; only when he moved did we notice him.

Yes, it sounds cynical, but corpses should be technically considered ... cover.

---------- Post added at 16:32 ---------- Previous post was at 16:28 ----------

Hi

Good to have grenades back... thank you very much!

Noticed that using bcombat and latest devbranch, vehicles dont react to far infantry. 800m distance and firing AT at APCs with no reaction. If I gave ta APCs a seek&destroy wp, they moved in to 400m and then started shooting. Without bcombat the APCs fired back, but did not move also.

Please consider that bCombat does not changes the way vehicles behave, it only affects behaviour for infantrymen on foot.

As soon as they board any vehicles their bCombat routines are suspended.