Bis ai snipers can engage up to 900m

[Holy Smoke 0]

Hi,

Don't know if somebody tough about this workaround for the snipers to engage at long distances. I'm posting this anyway.

The problem with snipers is that they have serious problems to find and identify the enemy. Real snipers work as teams with a spoter, eventually two, and this can be simulated in OPF. The trick consists in placing the sniper in an elevated position, more or less flat in order to improve aiming, and two or even three spoters with enough field of view of the area you want to cover.

The hill on Kolgujev is a good feature to test this, but actually all of the islands have enough features suitable for sniping. To setup the hunting team you need to do this:

-All units must have max skill

-Find a feature to place the sniper with a high field of view of an area.

-Then, it must be find a spot that allows a wide targeting without moving.

-Do the same with the spoters and don't be afraid to place them far away from the sniper. Around 600 to 800m from him should do the work. Bear in mind that they have to check the area for the sniper, so place them accordingly.

-For spoting task use whatever unit you want, but be sure he has binocs (officers and heavy grenadiers have them and you don't need to type). The best is a Spetznaz with binocs and painted face (if possible) because this unit is difficult to see for the AI.

-Give rank to the sniper to asure he is the leader of the team.

Now that the units are placed, let's assure they won't be wandering on their own and keep on the place we have assigned for them:

-On the "Iinit" field of every unit of the team type this:

This DisableAI "move"

-On the "special" field of the units type: none

-Give the sniper a waypoint over himself with "combat" behaviour. The rest of the fields can be left on "no change".

It is interesting that the spoters don't have any ammo at all so they don't engage. If you want, remove their weapons and place a trigger that adds them again when the enemy is close to his position, so the guy has a chance.

Following these instructions and with a view distance of 1500, AI snipers can properly engage from 900m. Direct hits on moving targets are achieved around 700m.

This is just a test I did a few minutes ago and it works, but it is very simple. To do complex things like the sniper shoting few rounds to conceal his position or making the team move to another position will require scripting.

Hope somebody finds this useful.

[Chronicles 0]

Hello

To try your AI long range sniping tips , i set this simple test in the mission editor :

On Everon map , 2 snipers head to head on facing mountains above Saint Pierre (South of the island)

I put myself in the middle of the HG-84 square on the map , and i put the enemy sniper on the dusty road , in the intersection of square HF91 and square HF92 (+/- 975 meters between us)

I do what you say for the enemy sniper ( i call him BOB ) with MAX skill and put in his init line

</span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td>Code Sample </td></tr><tr><td id="CODE">This DisableAI "move"<span id='postcolor'>

Then i create for him a MOVE waypoint and i choose the COMBAT behaviour , after that i move the waypoint on BOB

Now , i set my view distance to 1500

as i have 1.46 , i have to put

</span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td>Code Sample </td></tr><tr><td id="CODE">this setviewdistance 1500<span id='postcolor'>

in my own init line, instead of the Resistance options

I begin the test and walk down the mountain in direction of Saint Pierre straight to the enemy position , then i finally come in the HF-89 square , outside Saint Pierre and the enemy sniper begin to shoot at me : it was 370 meters and he killed me after 2-3 shots

Now i create , just behind my starting position , the enemy spotter ( i call him JIM )

I put that in its init line

</span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td>Code Sample </td></tr><tr><td id="CODE">removeallweapons this; This DisableAI "move"; [JIM] join BOB<span id='postcolor'>

To prevent him to shoot me in the back and to force him to stay where he is (just to see if i placed him well) , and finally to go under the enemy sniper command without being teleported next to him (if i just group JIM with BOB by dragging a line between them , JIM teleport next to BOB).

And now, that is not the same thing : i begin the test , then when i enter the HG-85 square : the enemy sniper shoot !!

Wow ,  875 meters and he killed me after 2-3 !!

Thanks a lot , a very easy way to use a long range sniper (just have to make the spotter disapear just after being created )

Something i will use in my custom missions

Thanks again

[mr. Duck 0]

All we need now is a script to make em more accurate, remember the motto, one shot, one kill.

edit:

by the way, how about replacing the sniper with a mg? That would make a good machine gun nest, or with a mortar?

[Holy Smoke 0]

Glad you found it useful Just an update,

This method also works with mortars and, basically, anything. Messing with the editor and the SEB Nam pack 2 I noticed that mortars can egage up to 1200 m aprox. The view distance was set at 1200m as well, but higher view distances didn't improve the battery range. 1200 seems the maximum range for this unit, but others may present different behaviour.

I did the test setting a battery of 12 NVA mortars over the Chupong Massif (grid Db 35 to De 38) and they were able to send shelsl as far as the Ia Drang river (grid Ch 43 to Cj 44). The plan was to cross the river using boats and take a position on the other side. As soon as the boats with the marines started crossing the river, they were shelled with heavy fire. One transport got a direct hit and sunk while others just made it with more luck than skill, though there were woundeds. When the marines put foot on ground it wasn't any better and there were many casualties.

Anyway, this workaround formerly intended for improving snipers engaging range, can provide a quite decent enemy maned artillery. It works with tanks and, like mr. Duck points, with machine guns also.

In fact, any unit in the game, official or not, can be used this way but something has to be taken in account: there must be a direct visual line between the unit firing and the target. While this is obvious when managign infantry, AI controlled armor (and mortars above all) cannot perform elevation fire. That is to say they won't aquire a target that requires an aiming angle higher than 45ÅŸ, so if there is an object or a feature blocking his view they won't be calculating the proper elevated angle to aim properly.

Chronicles wrote the code better and more clear than I did, so better follow his instructions. Now I will try to think how the spotters have to behave in combat, because just disabling his moving abilities makes them sitting ducks. A script has to be written, but I this is beyond my possibilities. I will try to think about something and give it to somebody that knows how to sript. Maybe a demo mission will be a good starting point...

Stay tuned