Suppression (dev branch)

[oukej 2911]

This is the place to find latest info about suppression mechanic in Arma 3 and also the place to post feedback about it (mainly about features already implemented in the game).

Suppression mechanics in the game

Mechanics, rules and outcomes implemented in Arma 3 up to date

AI looses good aim when under fire

AI unit that comes under fire will no longer return fire with the same accuracy as when it's not endangered. Projectiles that pass by, impact or explode near an AI unit make its aiming capabilities deteriorate. The more bullets, the closer impacts, the bigger calibers - the stronger the effect. And the longer it takes the AI to recover and stabilize its aim. Especially if the AI's skill is low. Whereas a Tier1 operAItor may just shrug it off in no time ;)

The effect may not be apparent at first glance. Note that this update does not change the explicit AI behavior and decision making when under fire.

But we still hope this mechanic will significantly contribute to the richness of combat, enhance your tactical options and increase the enjoyability of firefights with the AI.

Basic info:

• AI gets suppressed by bullets flying by, nearby bullet impacts, explosions and by direct hits.
  
  
• Every single such "event" increases the AI suppression by small increments from 0.0 to 1.0.
  (it is possible to fully suppress the AI with about 5-10 bullets)
  
  
• The suppression continuously decreases in time. AI with higher skill recovers faster
  (at avg. skill it takes several seconds while @ skill 1.0 the recovery from suppression 1.0 is almost instant)
  
  
• The more powerful ammunition the bigger the beaten zone. (the more powerful ammo the slower the suppressive effect decreases with distance from the target when compared to a weaker ammo)
  
  
• The suppression doesn't have any immediate effect on units in vehicle turrets (incl. static weapons). But it still has an effect on units that are firing from the vehicle with personal weapons or units that have disembarked the vehicle.
  
  

Configuration and script commands

-

• New values (aimingError & suppression) for
  disableAI
  scripting command.
  
  
• New script commands
  getSuppression
  and
  setSuppression
  
  
• New danger cause DCBulletClose in danger
  FSM
  .
  
  
• New cfgAmmo properties
  dangerRadiusBulletClose
  and
  dangerRadiusHit
  were added. And at the same time the functionality of other two, also
  relatively new
  , properties was changed.
  
  
  • dangerRadiusHit
    - defines how far the AI gets alerted by the projectile's impact or explosion. Default value -1 makes this distance be automatically derived from the
    hit
    and
    indirectHit
    properties.
    
    
  • dangerRadiusBulletClose
    - defines how far the AI gets alerted by the bullet's pass. Default value -1 disables the detection.
    (works only for bullets, no other projectiles)
    
    
  • suppressionRadiusHit
    - defines the max. distance at which the AI becomes suppressed by the projectile's impact or explosion. Default value -1 disables the suppressive effect
    
    
  • suppressionRadiusBulletClose
    - defines the max. distance at which the AI becomes suppressed by the bullet's pass. Default value -1 disables the suppressive effect
    (works only for bullets, no other projectiles)
    
    

AI prioritizes cover that is not suppressed

AI better avoids cover positions that could easily be targeted by the enemy.

Basic info:

• When selecting a new cover position the AI prefers a position that is "under control" of its own side
  
  
  • It hasn't been under enemy fire recently
    
    
  • It is not in the fire sector of a superior enemy force
    
    

Feedback tracker:

AI Suppression

Player Suppression

Known issues:

Suppressive fire command doesn't work

Edited April 16, 2015 by oukej

[Variable 322]

Thanks Oukej! For me this is THE most exciting feature of the latest patch. I wanted to ask the following question:

1. How close must a passing bullet be to the AI in order to count for suppression purposes?

2. Is there any direct or secondary incentive for the AI to change his stance when suppressed?

[Brisse 78]

1. How close must a passing bullet be to the AI in order to count for suppression purposes?

2. Is there any direct or secondary incentive for the AI to change his stance when suppressed?

I'm not oukej but I can try to answer anyway.

1. I think 8 meters is default for most small arms projectiles.

2. If you fire close to a group that has not detected you yet, they seem to always go prone. Not sure if it's the suppression or the danger mechanic that causes this though.

[EricJ 761]

Thanks Oukej! For me this is THE most exciting feature of the latest patch. I wanted to ask the following question:

1. How close must a passing bullet be to the AI in order to count for suppression purposes?

2. Is there any direct or secondary incentive for the AI to change his stance when suppressed?

1. 8 meters

2. Game logic. I don't worry too much on what so much the AI is thinking (he wants to kill me) but what he's doing. It's a matter of shooting at them and then analyzing their behavior. And besides if you were getting shot at, your stance depends on what's in front of you when you hide behind X object, so then if Rock, then prone, if can crouch, it'll crouch, etc.

---------- Post added at 18:41 ---------- Previous post was at 18:23 ----------

But after a quick test thanks to some AAF guys, the algorthims work (fired at me quite less with the values implemented in Stable) as when they fired at me, I fired a few rounds near the guys that were shooting at me and they were suppressed, though my values were:

suppressionRadiusBulletClose=3;

suppressionRadiusHit=3;

So for supressionRadiusHit on my personal level .5 is probably where I set for the AI anyway, you can have rounds fly everywhere but once they fly past your head (for real...) your ear you've got better things to do than stick your head out in the line of fire...!

And also for Suppression RadiusBulletClose again my personal tastes would probably be down to like 1 meter, but again given reality some people hear a bomb go off miles away and get shellshock while veterans of OIF-OEF (regardless of nationality) who experience it on a daily basis managed to survive it during their deployment, so it's a bit on the modder's preference and own experience on what the actual levels are but overall it's a nice feature.

[kgino1045 12]

I was expecting the suppression just like this,

watch it from 7m49s

but it seems like we are still get shot even we suppress the target, If those shots coming from wide spread blind fire then i can take it but, it's coming from straight of the firing, which is mean i've been shot by sniping not by some random blind shot

[froggyluv 2136]

Any plans to enable the Suppresion command already ingame?

[twisted 128]

one question, will suppression make the AI take cover and stay there? so then it can be used for pinning them down while your other guys move around?

i like what it does now but think the ai should be willing to duck behind cover and stay there dependning on volume of fire.

[EricJ 761]

From what I've seen yes they do all of that, some have not fired back or some simply stay under cover while you wait until you can shoot them.

[acesential 3]

I've observed this every now and again, but I think it's mostly emergent behavior from the new AI action of avoiding areas that are saturated with fire. Nothing explicit as a "search for cover because I'm suppressed" action.

[EricJ 761]

Yeah it may be just game logic of "I'm suppressed, therefore I am... not going to move." Or some such, but should be "Holy fuck! Rock! There!"

[Sterlingarcherz101 15]

Yeah it may be just game logic of "I'm suppressed, therefore I am... not going to move." Or some such, but should be "Holy fuck! Rock! There!"

I'd love to see ai under pressure, "rolling" to cover behind a rock close by.

[rübe 127]

Maybe what we actually need is a pair of new commands: commandRun/doRun, where movement, aka getting from here to there, has absolutely highest priority over anything else (and if super fatigued, maybe there could be a small hidden boost, s.t. the unit still can run for a bunch of meters/a few secs maybe... you know.... that special reservoir of strange forces people can access if they absolutely have to in extreme situations; e.g. mother's saving their babies, etc. The point of this is to *guarantee* at least a small sprint/run, no matter how fatigued.).

Besides that the scripting community would finally get a terribly useful tool it asked for since like forever...,

...maybe this could be then put to a first good use, in making the movement game of the AI way better/quicker while under fire/aka being suppressed (hit the dirt/run for cover).

[EricJ 761]

I'd love to see ai under pressure, "rolling" to cover behind a rock close by.

I think maybe ALIVE (?) handles that as far as a mod? But for straight vanilla AI procedures agreed, as I've seen AI take cover, lean to the side but that may be EOS adding to that as well.

[st_dux 26]

Maybe what we actually need is a pair of new commands: commandRun/doRun, where movement, aka getting from here to there, has absolutely highest priority over anything else (and if super fatigued, maybe there could be a small hidden boost, s.t. the unit still can run for a bunch of meters/a few secs maybe... you know.... that special reservoir of strange forces people can access if they absolutely have to in extreme situations; e.g. mother's saving their babies, etc. The point of this is to *guarantee* at least a small sprint/run, no matter how fatigued.).

This functionality has been requested since time immemorial but has never been granted. I have no idea why; it would make scripting effective AI assaults actually feasible.

[mr.g-c 6]

Maybe what we actually need is a pair of new commands: commandRun/doRun, where movement, aka getting from here to there, has absolutely highest priority over anything else (and if super fatigued, maybe there could be a small hidden boost, s.t. the unit still can run for a bunch of meters/a few secs maybe... you know.... that special reservoir of strange forces people can access if they absolutely have to in extreme situations; e.g. mother's saving their babies, etc. The point of this is to *guarantee* at least a small sprint/run, no matter how fatigued.).

Besides that the scripting community would finally get a terribly useful tool it asked for since like forever...,

...maybe this could be then put to a first good use, in making the movement game of the AI way better/quicker while under fire/aka being suppressed (hit the dirt/run for cover).

I'm all for that. Nice suggestion. AI should really run for cover when under fire especially in open field

I remember this Ticket from ArmA2 times: http://dev.withsix.com/issues/5041

And hopefully this one will be fixed too, as the issue is still true. Have a sniper repro mission. :-)

Forgot a related one where even SUMA replied: http://dev.withsix.com/issues/2557

[Guest]

From what I've seen yes they do all of that, some have not fired back or some simply stay under cover while you wait until you can shoot them.

If those units were initially in safe mode and then went into crouch stance along with combat mode due to seeking cover from being suppressed, then there is a good chance the reason they are not firing back is because of a pretty significant AI bug that comes up in such a scenario that causes units to not be able to fire, at all, as long as they are in crouch stance. This is really the worst bug I have yet seen in this game, and I see it all the time because of the fact that I have been working on an AI modification mod that often sends units into crouch stance to both take cover and respond to detected threats. My units are always in safe mode initially, because of the desirable animations that reflect soldiers relaxed, walking patrols, guards, etc, for scenarios that involve Special Forces stealth and infiltration missions.

This bug is caused by units that were previously set to safe mode that go into crouch stance, even if they just switched to combat mode (or aware), as testing has revealed that in order to avoid the bug these particular units need roughly 3 seconds between switching from safe mode to a different behavior before the change is actually registered and then the stance change will not cause the unit to bug. Unfortunately, any noticeable delay required before switching stances in reaction to a combat scenario is unacceptable and unusable, therefore there is no fix that has been found for this.

[kgino1045 12]

Is ai are still not taking cover to cover when they are suppressed? I think AI need to take cover when hell lots of bullets are passing right next to his chick.

[oukej 2911]

I do agree. So far the development of suppression in vanilla Arma 3 has brought lowered accuracy, beaten zone avoidance and recently the throwing of smoke grenades.

[-Coulum- 35]

the throwing of smoke grenades.

This is the first actual behavior decision implemented. Hopefully more will follow.

Sweet, will have to switch over to dev branch again this weekend to give it a go. Honestly I am skeptical because most ai mods with smoke did more to reveal their location than hide it IMO. Hopefully vanilla will do it right.

Looking forward to the "more to follow". Thanks Ai guys for the continued hard work!

[Grumpy Old Man 3546]

Like mr.g-c stated,

taking cover should be a higher priority.

Place a squad out in the open, at best on top of a road.

When being suppressed they will barely move, despite being a perfect target.

This is really obvious when suppressing AI on an open road.

Even if you stop suppression, it will take them forever to move away from the road, they always stand up, go prone immediately after running 0.5m.

[inlesco 233]

Like mr.g-c stated,

taking cover should be a higher priority.

Place a squad out in the open, at best on top of a road.

When being suppressed they will barely move, despite being a perfect target.

This is really obvious when suppressing AI on an open road.

Even if you stop suppression, it will take them forever to move away from the road, they always stand up, go prone immediately after running 0.5m.

Troublesome danger.fsm code? Wish somebody updated it to a whole new level, so AI's behavior is at least a little more realistic.

You know, it's sometimes great to see things improving even with the smallest of increments :D.

Ruebe is right about the commandRun / doRun commands being very important. And an extra stamina influx is completely reasonable when you're under fire - adrenaline rises up and you can easily sprint the fastest in your life.

Edited July 16, 2015 by Inlesco

[kgino1045 12]

Any news or improvement update? kinda worried about this feature for future plan.

[bumgie 49]

How can this command be used with zeus? If it cannot, it should be added ASAP!

 

Wrong thread. Sorry!