[OPEN BETA] [SP] bCombat infantry AI Mod

[denco 16]

A new update rolled out today and I'm getting a bunch of script errors that I don't remembers having previously.

EDIT: Its only one something about debug and suppression unknown variable 1, sorry cant remember what exactly was it right now.

Edited January 21, 2014 by Denco

[Smurf 12]

Just passing by to say that this is a MUST for playing Arma now.

Kudos and thank you very much for this!

[antoineflemming 14]

will you address the AI sight (without NVG) at night?

so as it gets darker their LOS gets worse so we can do some real stealth missions ;)

Again, this! This is needed. Actually, addressing AI sight period would be great. If there's some way to make them NOT be able to detect you if their back is to you (or at least, not unless you're very close), that'd be awesome as well.

[fabrizio_t 58]

Your mod "overwrites" the native perception system from Bohemia? Normal native AI already is affected by Time of Day and others factors.

If the answer is yes, then I would give it more priority. All the night missions will be unplayable meanwhile.

I've just downloaded latest stable build and i've run my usual stealth test.

Basically player is approaching an enemy unit (default skill) on top of a hill from behind, in a night without moon.

The purpose is to measure the distance enemy at which starts "hearing" player.

Here are the results (avg of 3 runs):

VANILLA AI

UP stance: detection triggered at 28,7m. distance.

CROUCHED stance: detection triggered at 26,8m. distance.

PRONE stance: detection triggered at 9.80m. distance.

bCOMBAT AI

UP stance: detection triggered at 29,6m. distance.

CROUCHED stance: detection triggered at 29,2m. distance.

PRONE stance: detection triggered at 10.2m. distance.

As you see the "worsening" caused by bCombat is almost negligible, under 10%.

That said, vanilla results for PRONE and CROUCHED stance (especially) make me a bit concerned.

[giorgygr 61]

In every case detection in ARMA 3 is totally unacceptable

Detection should take consideration of lots of things (as seen in DayZ mod)

Time of day/Light conditions/Ground material/Movement speed of (attacker)unit/Stance of (attacker)unit/Hearing-Spotting Skill level of (guard) unit

I think i summed up all things

[willywonka 10]

FAB,

I've been playing more ARMA 3 with your mod than I've ever played ARMA/OFP before. It's teaching me infantry tactics by hard knocks. When i'm in a place an I have this feeling.... "shit i shouldn't be (standing) here" I end up dying withing a few seconds. If i adhere to military doctrine the game amazing and just keeps teaching me better and better tactics. In short your mod has made ARMA into a simulator. I own VBS 2 and it comes nowhere close to what your mod has managed. I'm simply astounded 10+ years of ARMA/OFP experience and I've never met a mod its equal.

Thanks for letting me be a beta tester and congrats!

Mod assortment i've been blown over by:

bcombat

speed of sound

blastcore

bullet_hits_value

[Nietsnie 10]

but why do we have to wait for the mod to play better arma3?

Bis why not take example from the mod?

if anyone is able to change the AI why not do it by default Bis?

I do not understand

[katipo66 94]

VANILLA AI

UP stance: detection triggered at 28,7m. distance.

CROUCHED stance: detection triggered at 26,8m. distance.

PRONE stance: detection triggered at 9.80m. distance.

bCOMBAT AI

UP stance: detection triggered at 29,6m. distance.

CROUCHED stance: detection triggered at 29,2m. distance.

PRONE stance: detection triggered at 10.2m. distance.

As you see the "worsening" caused by bCombat is almost negligible, under 10%.

That said, vanilla results for PRONE and CROUCHED stance (especially) make me a bit concerned.

Just a general comment about the game but I wonder why prone generates the shortest detection range? It should only factor speed, I just think crawling is the noisest approach of the 3 stances, especially with combat gear and weapon in hand? No biggie

This is obviously regarding an approach from behind as in fabrizios setup:

Basically player is approaching an enemy unit (default skill) on top of a hill from behind

Edited January 21, 2014 by Katipo66

[froggyluv 2130]

but why do we have to wait for the mod to play better arma3?

Bis why not take example from the mod?

if anyone is able to change the AI why not do it by default Bis?

I do not understand

Probably because it's scripted solution and BI will only allow engine changes or nothing. But I share your sentiment, BCombat makes the game damn exciting now to the point that BI would be foolish not to try and replicate and/or build the guy an office at HQ.

[LSD_Timewarp82 21]

I´ve noticed that after a while i cant enter the "Configuration" to change Resolution and the other stuff. Played with v0.16, happens at last Stable and actual Stablebranch

[willywonka 10]

Just a general comment about the game but I wonder why prone generates the shortest detection range? It should only factor speed, I just think crawling is the noisest approach of the 3 stances, especially with combat gear and weapon in hand? No biggie

if you understand how targets are identified by the human eye it make perfect sense, a low crawl generates the least amount of noise. People have a very recognizable outline when standing up, and when lying down this outline is basically not in play. it might behoove you to look at some military sniper and infantry manuals. They teach in very simple terms how to identify targets and camoflauge ones self. try googllng us army sniper manual or us army infantry manual.

[turin turambar 0]

I've just downloaded latest stable build and i've run my usual stealth test.

Basically player is approaching an enemy unit (default skill) on top of a hill from behind, in a night without moon.

The purpose is to measure the distance enemy at which starts "hearing" player.

Here are the results (avg of 3 runs):

VANILLA AI

UP stance: detection triggered at 28,7m. distance.

CROUCHED stance: detection triggered at 26,8m. distance.

PRONE stance: detection triggered at 9.80m. distance.

bCOMBAT AI

UP stance: detection triggered at 29,6m. distance.

CROUCHED stance: detection triggered at 29,2m. distance.

PRONE stance: detection triggered at 10.2m. distance.

As you see the "worsening" caused by bCombat is almost negligible, under 10%.

That said, vanilla results for PRONE and CROUCHED stance (especially) make me a bit concerned.

You could have said "the answer is no" :P

I asked because they way you answered someone before, it kind of implied it wasn't taking in account said factors.

---------- Post added at 22:19 ---------- Previous post was at 22:17 ----------

Just a general comment about the game but I wonder why prone generates the shortest detection range? It should only factor speed, I just think crawling is the noisest approach of the 3 stances, especially with combat gear and weapon in hand? No biggie

Well, visual detection <> noise detection.

A prone target is several times smaller than someone standing up. Try to see someone 200 mts away standing vs someone prone. Now, that's only visual, as you say it would be cool if movement while prone produced (for the AI detection systems) a higher noise than for example crouching.

In fact I could swear that already exists. Sometimes I tried to sneak passing by a guard from behind, and he detected me. They don't have eyes in the back, so I suppose it was sound.

Edited January 21, 2014 by Turin Turambar

[katipo66 94]

if you understand how targets are identified by the human eye it make perfect sense

Well, visual detection <> noise detection.

A prone target is several times smaller than someone standing up. Try to see someone 200 mts away standing vs someone prone.

Ok i should have mentioned from an approach from behind as in Fabrizio's setup where visibility is out of the equation.

Basically player is approaching an enemy unit (default skill) on top of a hill from behind

I would have thought walking (creeping) would be the stealthiest in terms of least noise, crouching generates enough noise also... sorry going OT and not trying to start any "REEEEEALIZZZMS" debates lol, just thought it slightly backward.

Edited January 21, 2014 by Katipo66

[invisibull 0]

Anyone else getting a "@bcombat\unit.sqf not found" message since the BIS update? I've tried manually deleting and reinstalling the entire mod but keep getting the same result. The file in question is there, but somehow Arma isn't seeing it? This update has been a nightmare so far with screen tearing and FPS issues. A shame as i had it running like a top last night.

[ebarstad 18]

The new stable build released today definitely doesn't seem to be playing nicely with bcombat 0.16:

- no smoke or frags

- spot distance seems a lot shorter (will have to test more to confirm)

- weird AI behaviours such as running right up to or passed an enemy without shooting him

Just when I'd hit the sweet spot, BIS has pulled the rug out from under me. :(

[antoineflemming 14]

Love this mod. Just tested out a short, custom special operations stealth mission. Let's just say, ungrouping enemies, setting their skill to zero, setting friendly skill to 1, and running through a small Takistani village taking out some Takistani Taliban was pretty tacticool.

[RSF TheCapulet 59]

The new stable build released today definitely doesn't seem to be playing nicely with bcombat 0.16:

- no smoke or frags

- spot distance seems a lot shorter (will have to test more to confirm)

- weird AI behaviours such as running right up to or passed an enemy without shooting him

Just when I'd hit the sweet spot, BIS has pulled the rug out from under me. :(

Give him a bit. He hasn't even had a day to try and work around BIS breaking shit. It'll come around.

[antoineflemming 14]

Give him a bit. He hasn't even had a day to try and work around BIS breaking shit. It'll come around.

Don't think he's being impatient. Just pointing out the issue of BIS breaking stuff. And that's funny, given that it's usually devbranch that's breaking stuff with it's daily updates :p

[ebarstad 18]

Don't think he's being impatient. Just pointing out the issue of BIS breaking stuff. And that's funny, given that it's usually devbranch that's breaking stuff with it's daily updates :p

Exactly. Looks like those issues fab pointed out in dev branch made their way to stable. Boo-urns.

[invisibull 0]

OK, i've finally gotten that error message to go away. I had to redo the update and initially leave Arma3Sync out of the mix to get it to load properly.

[fabrizio_t 58]

The new stable build released today definitely doesn't seem to be playing nicely with bcombat 0.16:

- no smoke or frags

It was expected, grenades and smoke grenades are now gone, due to the notorious selectWeapon issue ( http://feedback.arma3.com/view.php?id=16783#bugnotes ).

Please VOTE the ticket, this needs being addressed by BIS.

- spot distance seems a lot shorter (will have to test more to confirm)

I'd consider this is unlikely.

Maybe it's an impression related to next point:

- weird AI behaviours such as running right up to or passed an enemy without shooting him

I had not much time for testing, but this would be reason for major concern, if confirmed.

It's a long shot, by i see 2 alternative explanations:

(a) something broken into events forwarding, within danger.fsm, so some events are missed.

(b) currentWeapon command is broken for AI

outcome:

(a) would make units more oblivious of surroundings (such as enemy near or in LOS)

(b) would break weapon range checking, meaning units would stop aggressively engage targets (as considered out-of-range), basically defaulting to vanilla behaviour. By the way, i've seen issues before, with currentWeapon .

Just when I'd hit the sweet spot, BIS has pulled the rug out from under me. :(

This is the #1 reason i quitted developing FlexAI :(

Looks to me BIS is just pushing stuff in order to comply with deadlines and that's causing some mayhem.

At least looks so, considering bugs as well as some half baked implementations ( e.g. fatigue, unit damage ).

Let's wait for dust to settle, then we'll see.

---------- Post added at 11:11 ---------- Previous post was at 11:06 ----------

OK, i've finally gotten that error message to go away. I had to redo the update and initially leave Arma3Sync out of the mix to get it to load properly.

Please stick to manual installation, any clients are likely to cause problems.

Edited January 22, 2014 by fabrizio_T

[Queleab 10]

The new stable build released today definitely doesn't seem to be playing nicely with bcombat 0.16:

- no smoke or frags

- spot distance seems a lot shorter (will have to test more to confirm)

- weird AI behaviours such as running right up to or passed an enemy without shooting him

Just when I'd hit the sweet spot, BIS has pulled the rug out from under me. :(

confirmed:(

[fabrizio_t 58]

(b) currentWeapon command is broken for AI

currentWeapon is still working, so it's not the culprit.

Please volte this ticket too, as looks related to selectWeapon issues:

http://feedback.arma3.com/view.php?id=14177

Edited January 22, 2014 by fabrizio_T

[LowFlyZone 10]

I was afraid to update my game yesterday because I knew bCombat would get broken and I just started using it to replace TPW. In the meantime I'll use the adapt campaign to keep me busy.

Mod seemed really cool and effective the little bit I got to play with it but does anyone know of any issue with this and using scripts such a UPSMON with patrols in missions? UPSMON has it's own AI improvements such as using smoke, flanking and cover as well as that radio range system to connect groups together for backup. Just wondering if the scripts could conflict?

I did one little test on the semi-sandbox recon type mission I'm making and ddn't notice anything too weird, it was a short test where I was a sniper and the 3 groups of 2-3 man AI patrols (2-400m away) managed to hunt me down so I know UPSMON was somewhat working atleast. This was before the new BIS update tho, too scared to even continue the mission now because UPSMON being a core part of the mission is probably broken as well

[froggyluv 2130]

-

spot distance seems a lot shorter (will have to test more to confirm)

- weird AI behaviours such as running right up to or passed an enemy without shooting him

Strange, I haven't seen either of these though I can confirm the grenades. The AI still seem to fire very quickly with no weird hiccups as well as at range in my 4 hour campaign session last night.