[OPEN BETA] [SP] bCombat infantry AI Mod

[Tyl3r99 41]

hi buddy,

any luck with PWS, I read that you were having config issues or something, so I've been hesitant to test the mod :(

[fabrizio_t 58]

hi buddy,

any luck with PWS, I read that you were having config issues or something, so I've been hesitant to test the mod :(

The problem was simply PwS is not allowing to install in compliance to instructions.

Hence it has been pulled, till bCombat will be fully packaged as pbo.

It's going to take some time for this, though.

[Tyl3r99 41]

thanks for the information

[Bouben 3]

Fabrizio, I have been testing your mod today again and it is really an improvement over vanilla. I am really enjoying it. Great combat experience. Thank you very much and keep yourself motivated. It is worth it. BIS should take note.

EDIT:

OK, I will say it more clearly. This is the best mod I have ever used in Arma series. A total game-changer. I am playing for couple of hours and it is absolutely amazing. Fabrizio, fantastic job. Smooth gameplay, amazing firefights. Love it. Never enjoyed Arma/OFP so much before.

EDIT2:

Oh yeah, and I forgot to say that this is the first AI mod that really improves and not just doing something while destroying something else (at least I have not noticed yet).

Edited January 20, 2014 by Bouben

[ebarstad 18]

Hey fabrizio_T, I was checking out 0.16 today (stable branch) and noticed the frag instead of smoke behaviour again. Would it occur if two AI from the same group tried throwing smoke at almost the same time?

On a side note, I did see frags being used again, which I didn't see much of in 0.15.

Finally, for those playing around with the damage multiplier: 1.25 seems to be pretty good. I found 1.5 was a little too lethal in the infantry showcase.

fab has mentioned a few things are broken in the dev build. I hope those bugs don't make it into stable branch tomorrow.

[tawah 13]

Just another message to say Grazie mille Fabrizio. This mod seems to be the one I was waiting as I mostly play SP. Keep on, you're approaching a great level AI mod.

[gvse 10]

Ive opted out of the A3 dev build in favor of stable and been enjoying this mod (ver. 0.15) ever since.

I'd say accuracy of enemy is too high: I even messed with the ai config in the player profile and dropped it down to

precisionEnemy=0.2;

, but I still get owned consistently, and I wouldn't mind having enemy spray some bullets around me to give me the heads-up ;).

The prone-roll works very well: Ive witnessed AI successfully rolling out of the way of helicopter gunfire, and it looked great.

One thing Im still not clear on is whether I've correctly edited the config to enable AI take cover inside houses. I set it to this:

bcombat_cover_radius = [15,20];

and would appreciate your feedback if that is ok.

Great job and thanks for giving us access to your dev build (btw, I tried it but got dialog with clickable "OK") each time my teammates died.

[Zorg_DK 10]

I've only tried the mod a bit, but so far it seems very impressive. I'm gonna try the adapt campaign with it. Thanks! :)

[The Hebrew Hammer 10]

Spot distance may need a bit of reduction, playing DUWS my chopper taxi's kept getting shot down from what seemed like missiles fired way to far away.

Maybe I have dumbed the AI down in DUWS, or it's in bCombat, but it seems like firefights are more enjoyable and last longer. Normally you see the enemy first, and you end up slaughtering them. In this case they spotted me from 700 yards away and opened up on me before I was ready. I certainly don't mind this longer engagement distance, but it may need tweaking.

also having issues with units staying too far back to cover and getting stuck, sometimes units are also staying in the prone even when there is no threat.

Edited January 21, 2014 by The Hebrew Hammer

[bravo409 13]

Here guys I made a PBO mix with bcombat check this action out ...https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mzheMEo5weI

[nerdwing 13]

Lovely mod! Cant wait to try it with Adapt later today! :)

[Bouben 3]

About the accuracy. I think it is a bit low than proper but haven't done any empirical tests so cannot really say (the unit that could not shoot me was probably suppressed heavily - but I think the accuracy reduction should not be that high for a mediocre skilled unit - they are literally shooting a ground in front of them sometimes).

Just one suggestion, Fabrizio: MG guys should be more careful with their ammo. They are shooting like maniacs and lose their ammo very fast and you now how painful is to resupply AI buddies in Arma 3 (the rearming is bugged too). Also, it happens sometimes that MGs tend to spray from standing position which leads to a very inaccurate shots. So shorter bursts would probably be more appropriate.

[fabrizio_t 58]

Hey fabrizio_T, I was checking out 0.16 today (stable branch) and noticed the frag instead of smoke behaviour again. Would it occur if two AI from the same group tried throwing smoke at almost the same time?

On a side note, I did see frags being used again, which I didn't see much of in 0.15.

Finally, for those playing around with the damage multiplier: 1.25 seems to be pretty good. I found 1.5 was a little too lethal in the infantry showcase.

fab has mentioned a few things are broken in the dev build. I hope those bugs don't make it into stable branch tomorrow.

The smoke issue is weird, i thought it was definetely solved. I'll triple check it.

Many units throwing smoke at once should not affect the behaviour.

I'm fiddling a bit with damage multiplier, handleDamage EH is so cumbersome ...

---------- Post added at 10:32 ---------- Previous post was at 10:25 ----------

Ive opted out of the A3 dev build in favor of stable and been enjoying this mod (ver. 0.15) ever since.

I'd say accuracy of enemy is too high: I even messed with the ai config in the player profile and dropped it down to , but I still get owned consistently, and I wouldn't mind having enemy spray some bullets around me to give me the heads-up ;).

The prone-roll works very well: Ive witnessed AI successfully rolling out of the way of helicopter gunfire, and it looked great.

One thing Im still not clear on is whether I've correctly edited the config to enable AI take cover inside houses. I set it to this: and would appreciate your feedback if that is ok.

Great job and thanks for giving us access to your dev build (btw, I tried it but got dialog with clickable "OK") each time my teammates died.

It's subjective, but with precisionEnemy=0.2; AI should be very inaccurate even in vanilla ArmA3.

bCombat further reduces accuracy by about 30% and applies further morale driven penalties. So i've no clue on what's the problem.

bcombat_cover_radius = [15,20] should work, but i'd suggest bcombat_cover_radius = [15,25];.

Please keep in mind there's a high chance you'll get units stuck into buildings, due to vanilla pathfinding problems.

---------- Post added at 10:35 ---------- Previous post was at 10:32 ----------

I've only tried the mod a bit, but so far it seems very impressive. I'm gonna try the adapt campaign with it. Thanks! :)

For those wishing to play campaign, i'd suggest setting some options as follows, within config.sqf:

bcombat_allow_fleeing = false;

bcombat_allow_surrender = false;

bcombat_allow_investigate = false;

This in order to avoid having important NPCs doing something unplanned.

Also keep in mind that ArmA 3 DEV builds sill have issues.

---------- Post added at 10:40 ---------- Previous post was at 10:35 ----------

Spot distance may need a bit of reduction, playing DUWS my chopper taxi's kept getting shot down from what seemed like missiles fired way to far away.

Maybe I have dumbed the AI down in DUWS, or it's in bCombat, but it seems like firefights are more enjoyable and last longer. Normally you see the enemy first, and you end up slaughtering them. In this case they spotted me from 700 yards away and opened up on me before I was ready. I certainly don't mind this longer engagement distance, but it may need tweaking.

also having issues with units staying too far back to cover and getting stuck, sometimes units are also staying in the prone even when there is no threat.

spotDistance maximum value is raised by 20%, within bCombat.

It should make some difference, but not so much to unbalance stuff (i think).

Lowering max. spotDistance to vanilla defaults means making AI snipers way less effective though.

---------- Post added at 10:52 ---------- Previous post was at 10:40 ----------

About the accuracy. I think it is a bit low than proper but haven't done any empirical tests so cannot really say (the unit that could not shoot me was probably suppressed heavily - but I think the accuracy reduction should not be that high for a mediocre skilled unit - they are literally shooting a ground in front of them sometimes).

Just one suggestion, Fabrizio: MG guys should be more careful with their ammo. They are shooting like maniacs and lose their ammo very fast and you now how painful is to resupply AI buddies in Arma 3 (the rearming is bugged too). Also, it happens sometimes that MGs tend to spray from standing position which leads to a very inaccurate shots. So shorter bursts would probably be more appropriate.

Well as you see by the poll results, finding some universally sweet spot for accuracy is pretty impossible.

People have different opinions and sometimes they're diametrically opposite.

Also accuracy perception depends on difficulty settings.

bCombat is designed do cope differently with standard ArmA 3 settings, for instance:

• Regular is supposed to be quite forgiving, designed to play well for newcomers as well as for experienced players who prefer playing as group leaders.
  
• Veteran is balanced for more experienced, careful players (accuracy is down compared to vanilla, but awareness and aggressivity are ramped up).
  

Obviously, your mileage may vary.

The only way around the problem would be customization, in my opinion.

I'm considering adding a difficulty multiplier within config.sqf.

Thanks for the suggestion about machinegunners, it's something i've already noted in my agenda.

Edited January 21, 2014 by fabrizio_T

[Tyl3r99 41]

@fabrizio

you've done so much already and its ONLY on open beta!?

how far you going ;)

its the most anticipated AI mod for A3 that's for sure, its all over the AI dev branch discussion forums

[fabrizio_t 58]

By the way, poll is closing tomorrow.

Current results tell default accuracy may be slighlty lowered in order to match baricentre of consensus.

If you've expressed no preference, or you're not comfortable with results, vole accordingly.

---------- Post added at 11:00 ---------- Previous post was at 11:00 ----------

@fabrizio

you've done so much already and its ONLY on open beta!?

how far you going ;)

its the most anticipated AI mod for A3 that's for sure, its all over the AI dev branch discussion forums

It's just the beginning of open beta, to be fair, as v0.15 was the very first public version.

Edited January 21, 2014 by fabrizio_T

[invisibull 0]

Fabrizio, I've noticed that some infantry units, when crossing the bridges in the Marina on the Stratis map, will sometimes just stand in one place spinning around slowly for quite awhile. This is with v0.16 with all the default settings. It might be helpful to note that the ai all have single SAD waypoints with 50-100m placement zones.

[fabrizio_t 58]

Fabrizio, I've noticed that some infantry units, when crossing the bridges in the Marina on the Stratis map, will sometimes just stand in one place spinning around slowly for quite awhile. This is with v0.16 with all the default settings. It might be helpful to note that the ai all have single SAD waypoints with 50-100m placement zones.

Unit spinning in-place is a stuck / pathfinding issue.

Which is a vanilla problem.

[sttosin 67]

Fabrizio, on config options for playing through campaign maybe have one config option called "campaign mode AI" which overrides configs that are likely to break campaigns. I have a feeling as the mod gets even better, there will be more options. The suggestions on what configs to use may not be apparent for newcomers or people who just want to jump in with bcombat and official campaign.

[fabrizio_t 58]

Fabrizio, on config options for playing through campaign maybe have one config option called "campaign mode AI" which overrides configs that are likely to break campaigns. I have a feeling as the mod gets even better, there will be more options. The suggestions on what configs to use may not be apparent for newcomers or people who just want to jump in with bcombat and official campaign.

Good suggestion.

I think i may add a campaign config.sqf (rather than adding some option inside), as alternative to the regular one.

So you pick the one you prefer.

[potemps 1]

Hello

I'm still testing your mod and im still very impressed :) AI behave great on A3 or A2 maps, even in Iron Front maps :D I got a question, is this is possible in cfg files to make AI use larger radius to find cover of flank ? I find out - they behave very well in mid urban battles, but there is some lack's when its coming to open field skirmishes where there is no much cover in place where AI starts to fight, but there is a forest or some buildings in radius of 100-200m, this kind of stuff is good for ambushed AI behaviour. Im not complaining of course - just asking ;)

Regards

[Tyl3r99 41]

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 ;)

[Tonci87 163]

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 ;)

Please do this.

Yesterday I played the first recon mission in the Adapt campaign. The AI was always spotting me first and they didn´t have NVGs.

[ravenholme 50]

Been trying this with the campaign and so far, barring one instance, it works perfectly.

(That instance being Death Valley in Survive. The Artillery Spotters take cover so well that Charlie can't kill them, so it registers Bravo as dead after a while)

Otherwise, it's like night and day to compare this to the vanilla AI. Such a great overhaul.

[fabrizio_t 58]

Hello

I'm still testing your mod and im still very impressed :) AI behave great on A3 or A2 maps, even in Iron Front maps :D I got a question, is this is possible in cfg files to make AI use larger radius to find cover of flank ? I find out - they behave very well in mid urban battles, but there is some lack's when its coming to open field skirmishes where there is no much cover in place where AI starts to fight, but there is a forest or some buildings in radius of 100-200m, this kind of stuff is good for ambushed AI behaviour. Im not complaining of course - just asking ;)

Regards

Hi potemps.

What you ask is feasible, but i think is a bit out of bCombat scope, for many reasons.

Basically bCombat is addressing unit efficiency and survivability. Let's consider it very micro-level tactics.

Move to cover is being handled as a tight (short distance) and temporary local diversion.

This is done in order not to collide with (a) existing waypoints and (b) group leadership.

With ranges like 100-200 meters in mind, i think the overall logic has to be different.

It's more like a permanent deviation, than a temporary diversion: it should apply to the group (or team) as a whole, rather than to single units.

So best way to achieve that is probably work with dynamic waypoints, whose position and timing is tied to tactical considerations.

Many mods work this way (FlexAI did it too), the real problem is getting some good decision-making on top of it.

Also the way cover is searched should be different: dealing with groups you're not willing to look for single objects, but rather for zones (e.g. villages, hills, mountains, woods, ...) and orography.

---------- Post added at 15:53 ---------- Previous post was at 15:42 ----------

Please do this.

Yesterday I played the first recon mission in the Adapt campaign. The AI was always spotting me first and they didn´t have NVGs.

It's feasible.

I remember having coded something like that a lot of time ago.

It took in account hour of night, presence of moon, as well as rain / fog.

Not sure it would work fine in ArmA3, it was just an experiment.

I may consider adding it later, at the moment i've quite some stuff to be ironed out for v0.16 release.

Edited January 21, 2014 by fabrizio_T

[turin turambar 0]

It's feasible.

I remember having coded something like that a lot of time ago.

It took in account hour of night, presence of moon, as well as rain / fog.

Not sure it would work fine in ArmA3, it was just an experiment.

I may consider adding it later, at the moment i've quite some stuff to be ironed out for v0.16 release.

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.