Vcom AI V2.0 - AI Overhaul

[genesis92x 810]

Wow.

Fantastic job on this great AI overhaul mod.

Honestly, it is so cool to see the units actually crouching, standing, moving about, finding cover, even sometimes coming towards the player during engagements. Just wow..

I did a quick test as well, after running the AI Overhaul scripts on a particular scenario, I ran the scenario again without the AI scripts running - the difference was quite significant. Basically, AI Overhaul scripts on = units become alive, engagements with ai become immersive. AI Overhaul scripts off = most of the units just go prone, as usual, and stay there.

From looking briefly at the scripts it looks like a lot of work has been put in this.

Congrats

Thank you, I have poured a bit of time into this and I hope it shows in most areas. I'm looking forward to showing off the next release.

Hey Genesis, which changes will included in the new version , i can't coarser carver discover.

So far I've done the following:

[b]Fixed[/b]: Sometimes AI would not suppress others correctly.
[b]Changed[/b]: Made AI pick cover a bit smarter - they will not consider thick patches of grass as concealment or cover anymore.
[b]Changed[/b]: AI will more aggressively follow waypoints
[b]Added[/b]: Zeus integration - Zeus has more control over AI while they are in combat.
[b]Changed[/b]: Vehicles dropping off troops will no longer charge into combat after unloading their cargo. They will follow the closest friendly by default.
[b]Added[/b]: AI have a chance to ragdoll instead of their basic "twitching" when shot
[b]Added[/b]: Userconfig has been added so the addon can be easily changed.
[b]Changed[/b]: AI will more accurately call for help or artillery
[b]Changed[/b]: AI will stay together better, but still break off to flank.
[/Code]

[jandrews 116]

look forward to testing this. thanks for developing this script.

[FreedomFries 10]

Hey Genesis I love your mod, I have a question. We have implemented your mod on our server which is running a custom mission and tonight we've had a lot of people crashing including myself. Checking my log here is what is showing up.

18:25:41 Error in expression <

_RankReturn = [_Unit] call VCOM_fnc_DetermineRank;

_Unit setVaria>

18:25:41 Error position: <VCOM_fnc_DetermineRank;

_Unit setVaria>

18:25:41 Error Undefined variable in expression: vcom_fnc_determinerank

18:25:41 Error in expression <

_RankReturn = [_Unit] call VCOM_fnc_DetermineRank;

_Unit setVaria>

18:25:41 Error position: <VCOM_fnc_DetermineRank;

_Unit setVaria>

18:25:41 Error Undefined variable in expression: vcom_fnc_determinerank

18:25:41 Error in expression <_RankReturn == 0>

18:25:41 Error position: <_RankReturn == 0>

18:25:41 Error Undefined variable in expression: _rankreturn

The red text repeated itself for about 30 minutes of playtime with the game finally crashing.

Exception code: C0000005 ACCESS_VIOLATION at 6D5FEDB7

A lot of mods being run and it is a heavily edited mission so there could be a ton of different things causing the issue but this was the only red flag that I could see from the .rpt. Anyways just wanted to know if maybe you or anyone else in this thread had seen this before and if there is anything I can do to fix the issue. Thanks for your help and a great mod!

[friznit2 350]

VCOM is our AI mod of choice at the moment, not least because it works very well with ALiVE and really spices up the game. Please keep improving it!

[rasmith1030 10]

Hi Genesis,

Your AI Mods seem very interesting. However, it seems that an AI Transport Helicopter will now fly my Team right into the jaws of death, dropping my squad only about 50 Yards away from obvious intense concentrated fire. If the Transport survives at all, it departs before all my troops have disembarked, causing some of them to plumet to their doom.

An attempt, in the Transport helo script, to turn off the VcomAI behavior for the Transport helo - using the _unitname setVariable ["NOPATHING",1,false]; command caused my script to Crash at that line.

Can you or anyone experienced with the Mod lend some insight?

Thanks for the help,

RAS

Edited December 26, 2014 by RASmith1030

[jandrews 116]

wait a minute. has this been updated? I looked at the download, its version 9, isn't that the previous version still? I didn't see any updates in parameters, perhaps I need to go back to look again.

Anyone?

[genesis92x 810]

Hey all-

I will be posting a new version soon, I will take a look at the current bug reports y'all are bringing in-but it might be completely different due to the new version :)

@JAndrew1 The new version hasn't been posted yet. I'm getting ready to release it, I've added some things in that a few people might like to see. I'm just making sure I don't see any RPT spam.

[tokyoindia 18]

I just started using the script version of this today and I'm lost for words! I think the only word that can describe it is intense! I don't think i could go back to vanilla AI now :O When i get into a rather intense fire fight my character starts saying 'Exit 1A' in the chat. I was just wondering what this means?

[genesis92x 810]

I just started using the script version of this today and I'm lost for words! I think the only word that can describe it is intense! I don't think i could go back to vanilla AI now :O When i get into a rather intense fire fight my character starts saying 'Exit 1A' in the chat. I was just wondering what this means?

Exit 1A sounds like some left over debug code...I wonder how that got in here?

I appreciate your post it's good to hear that people are still enjoying this mod. It's getting me excited for the next release ;)

----------------------------------------------------------

Hey all, I'm still bug fixing - but I wanted to share this little nugget from the upcoming update :) I'm hoping to do a few short videos that detail the improvements that the mod does.

AI DRIVING COMPARISON

Also,

here's an updated list of requested features and where I'm at with them...I'll update the front page too.

NEXT UPDATE REQUESTS:

GREEN = Completed

RED = Not Completed

YELLOW = In Progress

[color="#008000"][b]Vehicles:[/b] Make vehicles support infantry more reliably.[/color]
[color="#FF0000"][b]Code:[/b] Fix error message about returning parents of a class. (Check if isNil then exitwith...)[/color]
[color="#FF0000"][b]Players:[/b] Players will still sometimes utilize AI scripts.[/color]
[color="#FF0000"][b]Group:[/b] AI spawned in before mission start sometimes do not react to nearby firefights.[/color]
[color="#008000"][b]Code:[/b] Better Zeus integration.[/color]
[color="#FF0000"][b]Groups:[/b] AI will garrison nearby statics if possible.[/color]
[color="#FF0000"][b]Groups:[/b] Double check GUARD waypoints and garrisoning.[/color]
[color="#FF0000"][b]Players:[/b] Sometimes players swapping to control AI will not fully take over the AI and have to fight the unit for control...[/color]
[color="#008000"][b]Vehicles:[/b] Improve AI driving skills...make them avoid simple obstacles.[/color]
[color="#008000"][b]Code:[/b] Optimize AI suppression code.
[b]Groups:[/b] Make AI flank/follow waypoints better.[/color]

Edited December 27, 2014 by Genesis92x

[sixt 26]

Just have to say wauw! :-)

does this mod work on a dedicated server??

Also will this work in conjunction with HAL from rydigier??

[acoustic 82]

Could you take a look at the mechanized tactics for the ai? Currently apcs just drop off infantry and then drive away.

[genesis92x 810]

Just have to say wauw! :-)

does this mod work on a dedicated server??

Also will this work in conjunction with HAL from rydigier??

It does work on a dedicated server - with scripts or addons. The driving improvements are not in the currently released version yet.

It should work with HAL - I will have to take a deeper look at what may conflict. You will be able to turn off aspects of it that do not work.

Could you take a look at the mechanized tactics for the ai? Currently apcs just drop off infantry and then drive away.

Already fixed and done :) It will be in the next version.

[jandrews 116]

They drive better than some real players. Really nice!

[sttosin 67]

Keep up the good work. Nice driving AI

[stephsen 79]

Ohh Genesis, the new version shall a musthave-mod really good progress and plans :notworthy:

[seba1976 98]

Thanks for your mod and time. Can you explain a little what did you do to improve the AI driving skills or is going to be a secret :)? Until I saw the video, I simply assumed that was out of reach, from the scripting side of things.

[das attorney 857]

Looks good with the driving.

I did some testing and noticed they can't/won't detect class "Static" objects, but will detect entities on the same side (like "thingX" or "car") and try and avoid them. Wondering if you did something like move the classes over to thingX or maybe spawn some invisible creatures/men into the wrecks etc to make the car detect them instead and try to avoid them.

[genesis92x 810]

They drive better than some real players. Really nice!

Thank you! I'm having fun doing it haha

Keep up the good work. Nice driving AI

Thank you, I wanted to do the driving AI because I mainly missed being able to gun while an AI unit drives...It is far from perfect, but it's an improvement at least.

Ohh Genesis, the new version shall a musthave-mod really good progress and plans :notworthy:

Thank you! I am working on getting it released as soon as possible. I just want to make sure that I catch all the .rpt spam and all the AI problems.

Thanks for your mod and time. Can you explain a little what did you do to improve the AI driving skills or is going to be a secret :)? Until I saw the video, I simply assumed that was out of reach, from the scripting side of things.

Yeah :D! I will explain it below. It's really not that good - once I release it, I would love some ideas to improve it.

Looks good with the driving.

I did some testing and noticed they can't/won't detect class "Static" objects, but will detect entities on the same side (like "thingX" or "car") and try and avoid them. Wondering if you did something like move the classes over to thingX or maybe spawn some invisible creatures/men into the wrecks etc to make the car detect them instead and try to avoid them.

So, it's all really just a two part gimmick -

The first part, I predict the movement of AI by getting their velocity and multiplying it a certain distance out. From there I do a very small radius check for objects that may get in the units way, if the object's velocity is not too high (so if it is not moving very fast), I get the boundingboxreal of the object and locally create small physics objects around the object. This makes the AI recognize that there is an area they "should" not go - and they will actively try to avoid it.

The second part, is that the AI is always considering the closest building to them - and then it does the same algorithm. It will locally spawn small physics objects around the bounding box. However, with buildings, I ignore any spawn points that are on roads. Some bounding boxes for buildings are, for some reason, twice as long as they need to be and reach out into the roads. I found that I had to make the AI consider buildings as well because the AI would constantly run into certain buildings and get stuck. Parts of certain buildings are simply ignored by the vanilla AI.

This system has the benefit of not needing a mod and being fairly light-weight as the scripts are only run on AI who are assigned as drivers in vehicles. And of course, the system can be disabled as well.

If I had full control, I would like to actually get into the driving AI behavior and change it there - but when I looked at all the AI FSM's that you can unpack from A3...I didn't see anything related to driving behaviors.

[seba1976 98]

So, it's all really just a two part gimmick -

The first part, I predict the movement of AI by getting their velocity and multiplying it a certain distance out. From there I do a very small radius check for objects that may get in the units way, if the object's velocity is not too high (so if it is not moving very fast), I get the boundingboxreal of the object and locally create small physics objects around the object. This makes the AI recognize that there is an area they "should" not go - and they will actively try to avoid it.

The second part, is that the AI is always considering the closest building to them - and then it does the same algorithm. It will locally spawn small physics objects around the bounding box. However, with buildings, I ignore any spawn points that are on roads. Some bounding boxes for buildings are, for some reason, twice as long as they need to be and reach out into the roads. I found that I had to make the AI consider buildings as well because the AI would constantly run into certain buildings and get stuck. Parts of certain buildings are simply ignored by the vanilla AI.

Brilliant lateral thinking. I never would've figure that one out :).

---------- Post added at 00:16 ---------- Previous post was at 00:15 ----------

... or maybe spawn some invisible creatures/men into the wrecks etc to make the car detect them instead and try to avoid them.

You kinda figure it out apparently. Great thinking mate.

[1212PDMCDMPPM 200]

The driving test is impressive !! Thx a lot !! :)

About radio: does the lack of radio have any impact on VCOM_AIWarnDistance ?

Thx.

[seba1976 98]

Absolutely great, fantastic mod. I finally could test it with a custom scenario. A squad in the middle of the runaway, in Kinsella Airport, Duala. Night time. Surrounded by 8 enemy patrol groups, spawned randomly, once and again, to sustain OPFOR presence. I tried vanilla, ASR_AI, bcombat, and your mod. Vanilla was absurd. ASR_AI game some shooting but after 30 minutes of being there, static on the tarmac, none of my soldiers were killed. bcombat had similar effect but I got one or two cassualties. With your mod, the AI annihililate me and my team in under 10 minutes. As it should be.

[kremator 1064]

The driving improvements are quite impressive indeed. Why can't BIS do this for AI driving in vanilla?keep up the good work mate!

[seba1976 98]

The driving improvements are quite impressive indeed. Why can't BIS do this for AI driving in vanilla?keep up the good work mate!

Well, they certainly can do a lot to easily improve the driving, but certainly not by using the same method. This is an incredible trick to workaround the problem. BIS could solve the problem to start with.

[1212PDMCDMPPM 200]

Absolutely great, fantastic mod. I finally could test it with a custom scenario. A squad in the middle of the runaway, in Kinsella Airport, Duala. Night time. Surrounded by 8 enemy patrol groups, spawned randomly, once and again, to sustain OPFOR presence. I tried vanilla, ASR_AI, bcombat, and your mod. Vanilla was absurd. ASR_AI game some shooting but after 30 minutes of being there, static on the tarmac, none of my soldiers were killed. bcombat had similar effect but I got one or two cassualties. With your mod, the AI annihililate me and my team in under 10 minutes. As it should be.

Just for the sake of research ( :) ), could you also test it with GAIA ?

[jandrews 116]

Absolutely great, fantastic mod. I finally could test it with a custom scenario. A squad in the middle of the runaway, in Kinsella Airport, Duala. Night time. Surrounded by 8 enemy patrol groups, spawned randomly, once and again, to sustain OPFOR presence. I tried vanilla, ASR_AI, bcombat, and your mod. Vanilla was absurd. ASR_AI game some shooting but after 30 minutes of being there, static on the tarmac, none of my soldiers were killed. bcombat had similar effect but I got one or two cassualties. With your mod, the AI annihililate me and my team in under 10 minutes. As it should be.

I wondered about this too. Thanks for the testing, I will continue to use VCOMAI