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What to do about stuck units

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I think everybody has had this happen before, and it just happened to me when replaying the campaign. One teammate (AI) got stuck in a shed in ioannis in the mission where the supplies are thingamajiggled and now the mission can't finish because the team is perpetually stuck.

 

Reaching the stuck guy is impossible in this specific case because the mission ends in failure if you get too far away from team lead, but that's neither here nor there.

 

I am pretty sure that even if I could reach the guy, short of shooting him it would've been impossible to unstick him from where he was. Or is it? I'm wondering why this still happens, and specifically around buildings and complicated terrain features that Units get stuck inside or around them, and what you can do to unstick them. I once did it by lightly driving over a teammate to knock him over. That's not really possible all the time, and is kind of breaking the immersion. Teammates getting stuck generally breaks the immersion.

And it happens often enough to be noticeable, just like the tanks randomly flying off into the distance.

 

Maybe there needs to be some sort of feature that automatically unsticks units if they become trapped, or some way to find out what makes them stick and alleviate that problem. Anybody got some input on this? I am kind of getting frustrated with this, because doing urban work with the AI becomes a chore due to this too often.

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I don't know of any sure-fire remedy to unstick infantry, but if you get stuck in a vehicle the option to "Unflip vehicle" sometimes (but not always) appears depending at what angle it's stuck at, for example jammed on its side (or even upside down) between big rocks. Select "unflip" and it jumps a few feet to level ground on an even keel.

I can't remember seeing the option in the past, maybe it's a new thing with v1.64 and/or Apex.

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I created an AI building movement test mission that sends AI into buildings, which automatically detects when AI get stuck, by using loops checking their progress towards expected destination. If they aren't making progress towards destination for x loops in a row, then they have failed moving. If they cannot move to any of several other destinations, then they must be stuck (conditions such as if they are moving or stopped and distance from expected destination determines the number of loops required and failure reason). See my posts in this thread for related AI bugs and link to the mission.

 

There's a few different ways they can get completely stuck too:

- stuck completely inside building/object geometry

- stuck partly clipped through building/object geometry

- stuck within a building, able to move within it, but cannot leave

- stuck within a building and completely unable to move

- stuck outside but completely unable to move

 

When AI get stuck, the most reliable solution is to just setPos them to a clear safe area (but you could also potentially force the vaulting or similar animations to set them free). As for fixing the cause of the issue, BI are producing more and more intricate, detail/clutter filled, beautiful, but AI unfriendly terrains with each new release (Tanoa!), while making little to no progress since OFP at getting the AI to use buildings, so I don't hold much hope that things are going to improve.

 

The best community created solution would be a script mod that silently monitors all AI, freeing them when they get stuck. Otherwise, creating a more basic "rescue stuck AI" command/action for the player's group would be very simple, and I have seen the option provided in some missions.

Edited by ceeeb

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I have seen it used in a few missions, so it must be script and mod mod based,  but for allied teammates getting stuck I sometimes have a scrollwheel option when within 5M or so to push the unit slightly, which works well for when they get stuck in building hallways and such. 

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Since stuck units have been around since OFP, I agree that there should be a command that allows individual units to be rescued from the environtment. There is a mod that will allow you to unstick a unit if you can get within 50 meters of him. It's an older mod and the author is no longer updating it but the "unstuck unit" command along with some other very useful ones still works. That function is so useful that I never play SP without the mod. Check out WW AIMenu and see if it fits your needs: https://forums.bistudio.com/topic/153621-ww-aimenu-complimentary-commands/

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