AI Autonomous drones - How?

[The Real Bunc 136]

I've used drones myself under player control in scenarios but I was trying to make a scenario where a drone ( Greyhawk) was flying itself autonomously and was autonomously identifying and destroying targets. I just cant get the drone to attack anything though.

I place the drone at 500m and give it an editor placed seek and destroy waypoint to an area where I have placed a mix of CSAT vehicles. It circles that area but does absolutely nothing. I've tried going into the UV terminal and giving it a seek and destroy waypoint from there - nothing. I've tried a destroy waypoint - nothing. 

Is there no way to have a drone operate autonomously so that it identifies suitable targets and destroys them in an area without a player having to take control or a player laser designate a target?

( I also tried laser designating a target directly using a laser designator but the Greyhawk - still no response form the Greyhawk.  I also tried placing a UAV operator unit and linking it to the greyhawk using the command connectterminaltoUAv  ( though I didn't expect this to work anyway as a unit is not a person )   

 

Surely the whole point of an advanced AI drone should be the ability to id and designate or destroy targets?

Do I need a mod or have to script the behaviour to actually get a Greyhawk to properly operate autonomously?

[zagor64bz 1225]

OK....I've tried to reproduce your problem, and indeed the drone is NOT engaging any target autonomously. Got lucky with the SENTRY! waypoint, combat behaviour and fire at will: it actually engaged one vehicle, but not always. Sometimes it does, sometimes not. Like to know this as well...

[Sertica 18]

This is close to duplicate of my thread.  Drone algorithm can't detect or lase targets automatically via camera pod.  Operator does nothing.  You need to use something like my spotting script plus code to lase.

 

[The Real Bunc 136]

I see you also had problems getting the drone to follow waypoints on the ground prior to take off. I simply had the drone in the air and while it circled it basically did nothing  and wouldn't attack anything.  I note you had the start of some script there to address the spotting issue - did you make any progress with that?

I also noticed that the drone camera ( as seen via the PiP screen in the Uav terminal) never showed the camera actually pointing at any target but someone suggesting that that might not be critical.

If the drone isn't even identifying targets (let alone marking them) then of course it's never going to attack them. The further problem I noted of course was the drone wouldn't even respond when I was laser marking targets for it. At this point it seems Greyhawks ( and possibly the other fixed wing drone) are effectively broken for anything other than player use and they are essentially treating most of the waypoints as equivalent to loiter,  if they wont do these basic designation and attack tasks.

If you feel it best I'd be happy to resurrect your older thread or we can take your thread as incorporated here.  

[Sertica 18]

57 minutes ago, The Real Bunc said:

I see you also had problems getting the drone to follow waypoints on the ground prior to take off. I simply had the drone in the air and while it circled it basically did nothing  and wouldn't attack anything.  I note you had the start of some script there to address the spotting issue - did you make any progress with that? 

The visibility and distance lines do that.

						_visibility = [uav, "VIEW", _x] checkVisibility [eyePos uav, eyePos _x];
						if (_visibility > 0) then {
							_distance = (eyePos uav) distance (eyePos _x);
							if (_distance < 2000) then {
								// whatever
							}

 

57 minutes ago, The Real Bunc said:

The further problem I noted of course was the drone wouldn't even respond when I was laser marking targets for it. At this point it seems Greyhawks ( and possibly the other fixed wing drone) are effectively broken for anything other than player use and they are essentially treating most of the waypoints as equivalent to loiter,  if they wont do these basic designation and attack tasks.

If you feel it best I'd be happy to resurrect your older thread or we can take your thread as incorporated here.  

I've had them drop bombs on laser dots automatically in Invade & Annex.  They need a waypoint path over the target at required distance and speed in engage at will mode.

The only thing I might to add to my thread is how unitCapture and unitPlay works for making a plane taxi.

[The Real Bunc 136]

Yes i saw that helpful code Sertica and its a good way to identify units which are technically visible to the Greyhawk within a specified area. Did you manage to then get the drone itself to autonomously laze targets and then fire at them based on identifying such a list of potential targets?  Failing that, did you have to laze the targets yourself via code or player lazer designation? 

[Sertica 18]

3 hours ago, The Real Bunc said:

Yes i saw that helpful code Sertica and its a good way to identify units which are technically visible to the Greyhawk within a specified area. Did you manage to then get the drone itself to autonomously laze targets and then fire at them based on identifying such a list of potential targets?  Failing that, did you have to laze the targets yourself via code or player lazer designation? 

I've spent countless hours using the Greyhawk and never saw it do anything with the designator pod.  I'm certain it can't without code instruction.  What zagor64bzs observed was probably dumb fire.

[The Real Bunc 136]

Ive just tried again. I changed the munition to a cluster bomb and Greyhawk fired on groups of CSAT without any instruction ( other than a destroy editor WP. ) Thought I'd cracked it. Then tried exactly the same again about six times - absolutely nothing! It's infuriating! lol.

 

One interesting observation though - i hid my player unit from sight of the CSAT units - so of course my unit is then unaware of the CSAT units. Each time I went into the UAV tablet ( but without actually connecting to the Greyhawk) the CSAT units were showing on the the map there That seems to indicate that the Greyhawk drone is actually aware of the CSAT units ( I'll check knowsabout value later) and communicating their presence to the tablet but that this awareness isn't translating into an attack for some reason. If that's true it makes me wonder why its necessary to use a script like yours to actually pick up the enemy units in its observation area. All very strange.