Long time player. 16+ years? Details remarks. Maybe useful.

[vostov 10]

My time started primitively as a Freshman in Highschool playing Operation Flashpoint. Many hours crawling around with my M21 a few grenades and lot's of cassocks to send to visit Stalin. (I actually love the Russians I know)

I've been happily spoiled by this sandbox for 16 yrs.

Mostly building stages for my own and sometimes my immediate friend's amusement. I've recently availed myself of Steam's largely idiot proof system for putting out user content.

I try to edit out all the caseless weapons and keep the ones I know exist in real life. Then dial back the date to something feasible and make a scenario.

Suggestions: (mostly about bots)

1) Bots need to check themselves for wounds.

If not in combat. Touch themselves up.

2) Bots don't need to get confused by the random gazebo.

I love running long simulations while I am gone doing work. I come back and play detective and try to find out if my bots lived and how many they took down. Most of my survivors are trapped in the gazebo structures within cities on Altis and Stratis. It's bad enough to where I route units around and am trying to figure out how to script in the deletion of these structures.

3) Bots need to use grenades.

Often the best choice for when you generally know the enemy lies behind the next hedgerow is to toss 5-10 grenades on the other side. THEN expose yourself.

An aggressive setting might be included? Where the bots fire more suppressing fire and use all their offensive abilities more often. The drawback is they expose themselves to being spotted and engaged, waste ammo and will have to resupply off of enemy units defeated.

For these aggressive units: Read about Vietnam era LRRPs. I know one old man who was former LRRP/Ranger. Them dudes were beastlike light infantry. They basically went out in 4 man kill Squads and just roved around pwning the hell out of Viet Cong. (they could smell them - kinda cool)

4) Talking

Whisper when not detected but moving in ''Combat/Danger" mode.

Talk plainly in "Aware" mode.

Yell and maybe simulate hoarseness if too many commands issued? (someday - don't worry about this one)

IF YOU ARE FIGHTING DUDES WITHOUT NVGs the IR Lasers stay on the whole time.

Bounding advances with units who are very used to working with each other don't always need vocal commands.

5) Your ''special'' units might need to have more stamina than average soldiers. Less tunnel vision.

I know this is already attempted by adjusting the relative ''skill'' of a given unit.

this setSkill ["aimingAccuracy", 1];

this setskill ["aimingSpeed", 1];

this setskill ["aimingShake", 1];

this setskill ["commanding", 1];

this setskill ["courage", 1];

this setskill ["spotTime", 1];

this setskill ["spotDistance", 1];

That makes a beast - but he is a dumb beast.

6) Immediate improvement suggestion:

Please teach units to engage spotted units within <50-100 m ON SIGHT. So often the engagement delay is still comical sometimes.

(though it is so vastly improved... really Arma 3 is a joy to play)

Teach the AI to know what a stone wall is and a chicken wire or wire fence is. Often on user made maps they eliminate certain kinds of walls because the AI just don't know how to use these elements.

7) AI assault on likely enemy location.

% grenades on X over Y barrier. Then rapidly move in through the kill zone. (doorway/gate chokepoint) maybe after waiting?) maybe just spend all your grenades and send 2-3 guys to probe it rapidly?) maybe this behavior exists already but I haven't observed it?))))

8) Tanks.

I had a AI tank bring a building down on top of me once in Arma 2. It knew I was back there and did something very unexpected. It just started shooting it's main gun at my infantryman's building. Until it made a hole. I was honored to be coax'd by this bot.

Wondering why I haven't seen this yet.

Also, tanks need to have better situational awareness of other vehicles.

Hopefully my suggestions are easy to read and underline some existing concerns and perhaps raise new details.

Goodnight.

PS:

Moving and shooting a rifle isn't such an inaccurate thing. A skilled shooter can move and shoot simultaneously. I can, and I'm not going to say I'm skilled, advance on foot at a 2-3mph and headshot group with a rifle burst firing. I've seen guys that are seriously good and they do even better.

Having another type of infantry bot that represents people with this ability might be cool.

Edited March 5, 2015 by Vostov
additional remark post script

[Jackal326 1158]

You've been playing a game for 16 years that has only been out for 14 years? That IS impressive ;)

Also, some of your 'changes/suggestions' are already in game. Points 3, 4 and 5 are all present - I've been grenade'd numerous times by AI, and their voice volume does change dependent upon their 'combat mode'. Point 7 would also require heavy scripting giving the nature of ArmA's AI, such a script was made for ArmA2 where AI would assault buildings and then garrison them (UPSMON I think, I could be wrong).

Edited March 5, 2015 by Jackal326

[vostov 10]

You've been playing a game for 16 years that has only been out for 14 years?

THAT is embarrassing! Opps my bad. Feels longer. Kinda guessed at the dates. (don't need to do that) Didn't check wikipedia to confirm. (thanks for catching that Jackal326)

I was playing it back in 2001. /facepalm

:o

Point 3 is present? Aggressive setting? You can up their willingness to fire? How is that? I do not notice aggressive use of grenades. I do notice use of grenades in certain situations. Point 7 might make a nice addendum to the base AI behavior somehow. How this might cascade over the full range of AI choices might be a choice for the devs to decide if it's worth it. Trust me - if you got nades and there might be a baddie around the corner... your little tennis ball sized friend who brings trips to virgins in the sky and/or highly mexicanized field hospitals is going over the stone/mud/hedgerow/into the room first... followed by several of his friends. Then maybe you start going peek-a-boo...

(if you ever find someone you want to grenade you might use many of them just to make damn sure the job got done)

Point 4? Voice and volume does change. I noticed that. You are correct. However.....

(did you stop reading fully when you saw 16 years? (I might too if I noticed a gross error like that (My bad - it was late at night)))

....I just want one added touch. Whispering when no contact is made or when you are using suppressed weapons. THEN if a nade goes off and things get buck wild then you start the yelling and screaming.

It goes from aware to combat speech. The intermediate one I want is... when you are slinking around at night. Sound carries. Especially, when you are bounding around in an open field. You might - until you start blasting... be whispering a lot through your expensive comms.

Casual precautionary bounding movement would be whispered or sometimes not even acknowledge verbally.

Point 5. So, the complaints people make about the super AI being able to see through walls and hear shit is legit? Fair enough. I just maybe need to get in line when people chant for better functionality up close and switching targets. Like for instance I had a remaining surviving bot. (I do sadistic things like send 8 of them to fight 150+ normal bots - though the normals are spread out doing things but react via guard units to the 8 super bot mischief)

So, this bot has 3 targets in front of him. He detects them. He is aware other stuff is around via reports from his recently killed fellow squad mates. He is stationary and engages the first moving target. (target at time of engagement is apparently unaware of him standing near a wall and a bush) He misses and continues to fire at the target after it breaks line of sight. (that could be fixed a bit... but I know if the line of sight break were a bush and the target didn't alter travel rate he might've scored a kill) The other enemy units appear. He doesn't switch to engage the two new threats. He seems transfixed by this unseeable target. He gets shot. Turns fires and kills one of the two targets. The other having time to finish him.

Scripted AI behavior seems great. I like some of the random behavior I see over a period of hours when I come back to things. Accidentally? The bots seem to be on the 2nd story of a building hanging out

Addendums..

The lead unit.. he really doesn't stray from his course. Life is about the journey not the destination. You put a waypoint down but maybe there needs to be a setting to allow the AI to make choices on how to get generally to that point. (like him taking cover or stay with his group) The lead unit doesn't need to merrily prance forward and get all isolated and alone and get pwn'd while his 7 pals are off doing a Don Quixote over the hill chasing ghosts.

Also, lead unit might have the boys hold fire. Especially, if the enemy hasn't noticed them. Then everyone lines quietly up. Figures things out. Combs their hair. Makes sure all the optics are zero'd. Calls dibs on who is sending what to the afterlife then.... the maestro tells the kinetic concert to begin and biological material begins to get shredded... hate gets sent all that... but with more precision.

I am actually thinking of setting up a big if BLUFOR detects OPFOR then... 15second count to _x being set to open fire changing from the previous holdfire setting. Then once that is done... another trigger is in place to put them back to hold fire within 45sec to a minute... might work for now? I'll test that.

There needs to be some setting where the whole formation doesn't break formation that much. You don't go further than 25m from the main group. The whole group needs to stay together. Too often these small groups get spread out and can't compress their fire superiority together and make it count in situations where they are outnumbered.

I kinda have a simple fix for this. (provided none of the units die because I am not a script master and can't adjust for contingencies.)

I take X unit. Then take Y unit and give him a completion radius on his MOVE waypoint of 10m with a 5/5/5 time delay. Then I attach completion of that waypoint to a trigger I generally don't activate. This results in the unit following the target. I can simulate an entire chain of guys. They stay together. the following units do stuff like take cover and move at a superior rate of speed while in stealth mode. They never go far away from each other and as long as someone doesn't get capped it's all good.

Good for night missions where the enemy doesn't have NVGs and my guys do.

I'll goto sleep to the merry sounds of ppl getting shredded instead of some lecturer rambling on about some gangsta shit that went back down in the bad old good days.

Everything is improved really nicely. Seems to be arcing towards even greater improvement. I hope this commentary proves useful. Thanks Bohemia for making a great game.

Thanks for your time.

Edited March 5, 2015 by Vostov
kept adding stuff..