[OPEN BETA] [SP] bCombat infantry AI Mod

[Tyl3r99 41]

can you message sickboy fabrizio? maybe they may be able to look into it their end

[katipo66 94]

Heres a not so very good video of my very first run through with 1.5, Nato got the upper hand in the firefight and easily had me suppressed all the way, i dont think they were aimbots as such, but unlike before they were very hard to spot and had me in 6s and 7s. Note im not actually trying to play them but get footage of their behaviour and check animations and stuff but that proved difficult this time.

I felt they moved through cover very well and didnt expose themselves, its hard to see in the video but they showed very little of themselves when firing from cover, usually there will be the odd 3 or 6 that stand around in the open, i didnt notice the roll to side animation from the enemy but noticed my character used it?

I think a very nice feel with this release, very believable.. of course will test more vigorously but future looks good.

Also does anyone know how to better use shadow play for youtube other than the one quality setting?

Edited January 13, 2014 by Katipo66

[fabrizio_t 58]

can you message sickboy fabrizio? maybe they may be able to look into it their end

He's not accepting PM anymore.

I'm trying to send a message to support (http://withsix.com/support).

EDIT: message sent.

Edited January 13, 2014 by fabrizio_T

[Tyl3r99 41]

do you think AI will be using buildings more effectively in future releases? like shooting from top window vice versa.

[fabrizio_t 58]

Heres a not so very good video of my very first run through with 1.5, Nato got the upper hand in the firefight and easily had me suppressed all the way, i dont think they were aimbots as such, but unlike before they were very hard to spot and had me in 6s and 7s. Note im not actually trying to play them but get footage of their behaviour and check animations and stuff but that proved difficult this time.

I felt they moved through cover very well and didnt expose themselves, its hard to see in the video but they showed very little of themselves when firing from cover, usually there will be the odd 3 or 6 that stand around in the open, i didnt notice the roll to side animation from the enemy but noticed my character used it?

I think a very nice feel with this release, very believable.. of course will test more vigorously but future looks good.

Also does anyone know how to better use shadow play for youtube other than the one quality setting?

Thank you for the video and for reporting the bug with rolling animation being run on player.

Fixed into my internal build.

---------- Post added at 10:55 ---------- Previous post was at 10:49 ----------

do you think AI will be using buildings more effectively in future releases? like shooting from top window vice versa.

Good question.

bCombat already includes code to make AI units move to building "positions" for cover.

The problem is that units get frequently stuck there, so this feature it's disabled for now.

Let's see if BIS is going to address this problem, then we may hopefully build more features.

By the way, within v0.16 i'm willing to address some somewhat related stuff, such as firing from higher ground leading to more pronounced suppressive effect (and viceversa).

[fabrizio_t 58]

Looks that issues with WithSIX client may be related to some glitches of the client itself.

See my ticket here:

https://getsatisfaction.com/withsix/topics/bcombat_installation_problems?utm_content=topic_link&utm_medium=email&utm_source=reply_notification

Edited January 13, 2014 by fabrizio_T

[ebarstad 18]

Same AI test, but with vanilla AI. Doesn't go well for BLUFOR.

[fabrizio_t 58]

Same AI test, but with vanilla AI. Doesn't go well for BLUFOR.

I love how they flee in formation. How disciplined ...

And what about use of cover ...

ebarstad, i added your previous video to the MEDIA section on the first post.

Are you fine with that?

Edited January 13, 2014 by fabrizio_T

[bono_lv 10]

Same AI test, but with vanilla AI. Doesn't go well for BLUFOR.

To be honest, vanilla AI movement and cover usage is quite pathetic.

[ebarstad 18]

I love how they flee in formation. How disciplined ...

And what about use of cover ...

ebarstad, i added your previous video to the MEDIA section on the first post.

Are you fine with that?

Yeah, no problem.

The vanilla AI video really highlights how good bCombat is and how minor any critiques I've made really are. For example, at the start of the vanilla AI video, some of the AI kneel down without firing, too, but because of the high accuracy, they end up dead right away.

[fabrizio_t 58]

May i ask testers, as a last effort, to give their explicit advice ("GREEN" or "RED" light) for v0.15 public distribution ?

If "RED" please briefly describe the (major) issues encountered, so i can look into them.

Posting simply "GREEN", or "RED" + issue description would suffice.

Based on your feedback i'm opting either for a (soon) public release or a delay.

Thank you.

---------- Post added at 18:12 ---------- Previous post was at 18:11 ----------

Yeah, no problem.

The vanilla AI video really highlights how good bCombat is and how minor any critiques I've made really are. For example, at the start of the vanilla AI video, some of the AI kneel down without firing, too, but because of the high accuracy, they end up dead right away.

Thanks. Your critiques were welcome, as always.

[eymerich 11]

sorry... maybe it's me and i am a little tired but... where is the download link?

[fabrizio_t 58]

sorry... maybe it's me and i am a little tired but... where is the download link?

Welcome Eymerich,

we underwent yesterday a shakedown phase, involving private testing (by 20 official testers), preliminary to open beta release.

At the moment we're collecting testers' feedback, in order to evaluate v0.15 build quality.

If everything goes well, i think download link will be posted soon.

Otherwise, i'll give advice on next move.

[ebarstad 18]

GREEN: I've only done the AI vs AI tests, but I haven't seen anything that's broken.

[RSF TheCapulet 59]

Played it as much as I could last night. Meant to come back and post, but fell asleep at the keyboard.

You've got my seal of approval on this. Best release so far. No noticeable bugs, and I love how tight the AI movement seems now. Deliberate and sometimes daring. Feels like I'm playing against Crysis AI. Beautiful work fab.

[froggyluv 2130]

Green. Let the plebes have a go! :D

[katipo66 94]

I haven't tested a lot but I would say green from what I've seen so far, they seem even more smarter than 1.4 with cover use and one thing i also noticed is they seemed much more aggressive as well, I have mostly been testing from a first person level in the desert and not yet in the terrain or urban areas so cannot give much feedback but as noted before these guys keep low and use cover very well, I'm containing myself so as not to over hype :)

[bravo409 13]

Fab I got my FPS at 25-30 now sometimes if to much is going on, like a lot of buildings,smoke it takes a toll on my FPS and knocks it to 12. But night missions no problem thinking because less colors to render. Anyway I would give this a green only thing was the standing in the road thing.GREEN

---------- Post added at 02:40 PM ---------- Previous post was at 01:53 PM ----------

THIS should help use with some of the fps problems Arma 3 gives just delete all pbos except muzzle smoke this help fps ....http://forums.bistudio.com/showthread.php?171332-Muzzle-smoke-particle-of-a-player-s-weapon-firing-eats-10-fps/page3

[sttosin 67]

Fabrizio, From one of the 0.15 videos uploaded, it appears the overwatch Autorifleman stays in the open while suppressing. I would imagine he'd seek cover himself as to increase odds of surviving the engagement. Hope that clip was the exception.

[fabrizio_t 58]

Fabrizio, From one of the 0.15 videos uploaded, it appears the overwatch Autorifleman stays in the open while suppressing. I would imagine he'd seek cover himself as to increase odds of surviving the engagement. Hope that clip was the exception.

Not necessarily, in my opinion.

In case of an unexpected clash, Fire support should be laid down as soon as possible, considering the whole group is probably exposed.

You trade the unit(s) capable of the most volume of suppresive fire for the rest of the group.

This in order to gain and advantage or safe position for most units.

Having all units moving to cover at once would only lead to increased vulnerability, as well as tactical advangage (initiative) gifted to enemy.

This normally applies to AI groups,which have a very few unsupervised tactical options, in order to enhance their survivability.

As a leader you should not fall into such a situation however.

In "indian country" it's better splitting your group at least into recon and fire teams.

You advance recon units to check if terrain is safe. Then move fire team to a goot spot for overwatch. Then repeat.

This way your fire team is usually in an advantage position on enemy contact, or covered by other units.

This made me remember some Rommel's motto from WWI, which basically sounds like: "who's first to fire AND owning the biggest firepower wins.".

Simple as that ;)

My 2 cents.

Edited January 14, 2014 by fabrizio_T

[clarionhorn 10]

but he has no self preservation. after initial volley, he should find cover himself while rifleman cover his retreat. also, is it possible to make ai use urban prone near corners? or side prone?

[fabrizio_t 58]

but he has no self preservation. after initial volley, he should find cover himself while rifleman cover his retreat.

This is a minefield i'm not entering ;)

Fact:

units in overwatch mode do sport individual self preservation.

As soon as they feel over-threatened the may (try to) move to cover.

By default this applies, depending on skill, when at least 10% morale penalty is suffered.

This does not mean any units are supposed to behave in an exact (right) way in any situation.

Opinion:

I think it's already debatable what should be "best" thing to do in such a situation, especially considering actual game's constraints.

Even in the unlikely case we would agree what's "right" (as well as feasible), i don't think it should necessarily apply all the way.

This may probably sound cryptic for newcomers, but has a lot to do with the original philosophy or "mood" of this mod, which is its own DNA.

Let me self-quote myself, for a more general thought ( i was commenting a consideration almost contrary to yours ) :

...

Players usually consider opening fire on sight as the best option, but in my opinion that's a legacy of their gamers' background.

Humans do not usually react this way when threatened. It's called self-preservation and makes them unpredictable.

Despite this being the apparent rule in mods, i hardly think making AI more deadly would be, by itself, an enhancement.

Infact i'm putting the same efforts in making AI better as well as worse, depending on some criteria.

Vanilla AI is (still) robots with guns.

You can't really apply tactics against robots.

Think about it, you end up exploiting their (programming) weaknesses or trying brute force.

I'm bored playing this way.

I would like to have those robots sense fear.

Fear leads to mistakes.

Mistakes make into greater tactical opportunity for the opponent.

...

(See original message context: http://forums.bistudio.com/showthread.php?167288-WIP-bCombat-infantry-AI-Mod-SP&p=2552230&viewfull=1#post2552230)

Hope this clarifies a bit my take on "right" vs. "wrong" as well as "what's right" vs. "what happens".

Edited January 14, 2014 by fabrizio_T

[sttosin 67]

If AI group is ambushed, as long as most of them return fire immediately to gain fire superiority not leaving autorifleman to do all the suppression leaving him as easy target on first contact. I have read every post on this thread and I am not suggesting finding cover as a first move is always the "right" move. If it's already coded with these behavior then I apologize for going on and on. In most of my AI vs. AI gameplay on v0.14 in CQB, the autorifleman were the first to die which was a shame.

I appreciate this mod and have not seen this level of detail/options in an AI mod ever.

[tortuosit 485]

AI behaviour is affected by many environmental events (spotted enemies, explosions, bullets whizzling by, ricochets, wounds, casualties, ...).

I.e., I should not use tpw_mods (the suppresion part of it) with this mod, right? Can enemy units be supressed with bCombat?

[eymerich 11]

Welcome Eymerich,

we underwent yesterday a shakedown phase, involving private testing (by 20 official testers), preliminary to open beta release.

At the moment we're collecting testers' feedback, in order to evaluate v0.15 build quality.

If everything goes well, i think download link will be posted soon.

Otherwise, i'll give advice on next move.

Ahh okay!

Thanks for answer and best luck!

:)