Squad Leader Help

[machineking 0]

I need help leading AI NPCs, and I also have a few questions.

I've gotten pretty good at mounting vehicles, but in combat situations they seem to never be in a good position.

'take cover' doesn't seem to be effective. Any suggestions?

Also, they never seem to run as fast as I'd like them to. How do I/Can I, make them sprint ?

I also learned how to make them switch gear by having them stand really close to a crate and then Action->Gear.

But what is the 'Custom' radio thing for? It always seems empty.

My biggest question is how do I give my position? The AI always asks 'Where are you?' and I never knew how to give my position even if I know it.

Please share some of your tips for SLing AI

[Maddmatt 1]

I need help leading AI NPCs, and I also have a few questions.

I've gotten pretty good at mounting vehicles, but in combat situations they seem to never be in a good position.

'take cover' doesn't seem to be effective. Any suggestions?

Also, they never seem to run as fast as I'd like them to. How do I/Can I, make them sprint ?

I also learned how to make them switch gear by having them stand really close to a crate and then Action->Gear.

But what is the 'Custom' radio thing for? It always seems empty.

My biggest question is how do I give my position? The AI always asks 'Where are you?' and I never knew how to give my position even if I know it.

Please share some of your tips for SLing AI

They aren't very good at choosing positions, but neither are the enemy AI. Just make sure you choose an appropriate formation for the situation and maybe give them positions to move to when appropriate (like if you want to attack from two different angles.)

And after all my time with OFP and now the ArmA demo I still don't know how to tell my squad my position . Maybe someone here knows but I'm not sure you can. I usually just give them a move order near me.

[j w 0]

1 'take cover' doesn't seem to be effective. Any suggestions?

2 Also, they never seem to run as fast as I'd like them to. How do I/Can I, make them sprint ?

3 But what is the 'Custom' radio thing for? It always seems empty.

4 My biggest question is how do I give my position? The AI always asks 'Where are you?' and I never knew how to give my position even if I know it.

1 Take cover means like getting down on the ground.

I've found it dodgy, so it ended up me killing all enemies anyways

2 Hmm, do you mean when leading them?

Just order "Fall back into formation", and they should allways run as fast as you do.

Otherwise, set up a waypoint on yourself (leader), so there you can choose wich formation etc the group should start in.

When you're marking for the waypoint, your name (ie, Soldier, Sniper etc) should show up, but they marker should not be excactly on you. Then it'll work.

In there you can find speed; Set it to full, and it should work.

3 Custom sounds in MultiPlayer.

4 There's no command for it, it bugged the hell out of me in OFP.

Hope I helped

JW

EDIT: The radiocomm: "Where are you?" from a member, is more like "I'm lost". Basicly

[DaRat 0]

I think the reason there is no "report position" command is because it would kinda be cheating in situations when say, you need to navigate by the stars or landscape if you were shot down and needed to get back to base

[wamingo 1]

Wouldn't be cheating if you had a right click option on the map to call out the grid you click on.

[Jack-UK 0]

Well you could just give them a move order to your feet

[wamingo 1]

When you make a move order near you, it doesn't give a coordinate, so that won't work. It gives a heading and distance from the leader.

[Heatseeker 0]

The a.i. alway know where you are, "where are you?" is like a way for them to say they are let behind and need to catch up, dont worry about it .

[wamingo 1]

Yeah it would be nice for multiplayer though. AI's can give the spots vocally but players has to type/speak it out. Although that makes perfect sense it would be more inline with the rest of the squad (ai) if you could target a grid and report it.

Carry on.

[Maddmatt 1]

I think the reason there is no "report position" command is because it would kinda be cheating in situations when say, you need to navigate by the stars or landscape if you were shot down and needed to get back to base

Simply call an AI to move near you and get him to "Report Status". There you go, the cheat is already there .

[hund 0]

One thing I've discovered is that the AI seems to work better if they are assigned to teams. Then they start buddy hopping around within their teams, which looks rather cool.

[Big Dawg KS 6]

'take cover' doesn't seem to be effective. Any suggestions?

Order them into cover manually, and don't attack until they're in a good position. You should also make use of the engage commands, tell them to engage at will, scan horizon, and when needed tell them to go prone. Or if you're going to ambush the enemy tell them to hold fire, get them into good concealed positions, manually give each of them targets and when they all say "Ready to fire" give them the order to open fire. This tactic has always worked the best in OFP, and if you do it right you're able to wipe out all of the enemies you assigned the AI to kill in an instant before they have time to react.

Quote[/b] ]Also, they never seem to run as fast as I'd like them to.  How do I/Can I, make them sprint ?

The AI will pace themselves, because if you sprint too much you fatigue and your aim goes to hell. Like real life they won't always be able to keep up with you if you move too fast, so pace yourself. They will sprint when they feel the need though.

Quote[/b] ]But what is the 'Custom' radio thing for? It always seems empty.

Absolutely nothing to do with AI. It just plays custom sounds over the radio that you have in your user folder. Works in MP and SP, but it's kind of pointless to use them in SP.

Quote[/b] ]My biggest question is how do I give my position?  The AI always asks 'Where are you?' and I never knew how to give my position even if I know it.

The AI know where you are at all times despite what they say. Like someone else said when they say "Where are you?" it means they're too far behind and need you to wait for them to catch up. They still know where you are and will keep moving towards you. AI leaders will respond because players in their squad won't always know where they are. And in MP players commanding other players can simply tell them where they are.

[j w 0]

'take cover' doesn't seem to be effective. Any suggestions?

Order them into cover manually, and don't attack until they're in a good position. You should also make use of the engage commands, tell them to engage at will, scan horizon, and when needed tell them to go prone. Or if you're going to ambush the enemy tell them to hold fire, get them into good concealed positions, manually give each of them targets and when they all say "Ready to fire" give them the order to open fire. This tactic has always worked the best in OFP, and if you do it right you're able to wipe out all of the enemies you assigned the AI to kill in an instant before they have time to react.

That tactic owned when playing the Mission Wizard-template that came with OFP.

Just line the men up, give 'em all a target and "BAM", the ruskies are gone

[Second 0]

To me it seems that take cover-command is useless in ArmA (demo). To me command view is best, just order "move to..." each men individualy to it's position, like bushes, trees etc...

Or how take cover-command works best. Should it be given to multiple men like this: "3,4,5 take cover" or individualy like "2 take cover", "3 take cover", "4 take cover"? I've used it individualy, and there doesn't seem to be anykind of effect. They just go prone, but stay where they are. And same thing seems to be when ordering it to multiple men.

Or do they react to take cover-command only when dangerous thing has presented itself, so they don't look for cover if there isn't anykind of dangerous thing that they know of?

Stealth seems to have very strong effect to behaviour of AI in ArmA. I've seen that they don't like to use AT weapons if in stealth mode and vehicle is in aprox. 100 meters away.

[j w 0]

My thought on the Take Cover command has allways been that it was made for MP, so that the leader could say to his player-squad:

"All, take cover!", and all real ppl would really take cover

I don't think the AI was ever that smart. Or?

[Second 0]

My thought on the Take Cover command has allways been that it was made for MP, so that the leader could say to his player-squad:

"All, take cover!", and all real ppl would really take cover

I don't think the AI was ever that smart. Or?

In OFP AI responded to it quite well (they took cover behind trees and bushes etc...). AI leader gives them this command individualy (in engage-at-will mode) like: "2 take cover", to multple men it didn't work as good.

Not sure about ArmA, but i haven't seen same reactions to it as in OFP. Little shame really, as best skrmishes i had in OFP was against AI which was ordered to take cover in woods with "_x disableai {target}" foreach units this -line

[Maddmatt 1]

...as best skrmishes i had in OFP was against AI which was ordered to take cover in woods with "_x disableai {target}" foreach units this -line

That doesn't give them the take cover command.

[wamingo 1]

Based on ofp/arma-demo "Take Cover" just puts them in a wedge-ish formation randomly. Sometimes they move to the other side of a building, mostly they don't. The Hide tag I have no idea what does though. Could imagine it makes them more passive but to my experience it has done nothing. I might be using it wrong though.

[ade_mcc 0]

Quote[/b] ]My thought on the Take Cover command has allways been that it was made for MP, so that the leader could say to his player-squad:

"All, take cover!", and all real ppl would really take cover

I don't think the AI was ever that smart. Or?

The few times ive used the Take Cover command I have noticed a couple of AI leap into bushes (OFP anyway) but it was a bit random and didn't really feel like an effective counter measure. So I didn't really use it after that.

In regards to the ai shouting "where are you?", I always thought that the command 1,1 i.e. Return to Formation was necessary to inform them where you were. Though I cant remember where I got that idea from, maybe cwc campaign?

[Second 0]

...as best skrmishes i had in OFP was against AI which was ordered to take cover in woods with "_x disableai {target}" foreach units this -line

That doesn't give them the take cover command.

No it doesn't... But engage-at-will gives. That line just makes sure that they keep hiding and shooting when opportunity rises and not to performing suicide engagings.

[Maddmatt 1]

...as best skrmishes i had in OFP was against AI which was ordered to take cover in woods with "_x disableai {target}" foreach units this -line

That doesn't give them the take cover command.

No it doesn't... But engage-at-will gives. That line just makes sure that they keep hiding and shooting when opportunity rises and not to performing suicide engagings.

Wrong again. You order them to take cover with the "take cover" command.

[Second 0]

Based on ofp/arma-demo "Take Cover" just puts them in a wedge-ish formation randomly. Sometimes they move to the other side of a building, mostly they don't. The Hide tag I have no idea what does though. Could imagine it makes them more passive but to my experience it has done nothing. I might be using it wrong though.

That is the case (in OFP atleast) if take cover is assinged to multiple men: the point man takes cover and rest of the guys just keeps the formation. If it's assigned to invidual men like: "2 take cover", "3 take cover", "4 take cover", "5 take cover" then they search hiding place for themselves (as every one are point men to themselves) much more effectively, but it's guite slow to command them... I don't use it myself, but with AI squad leader it's good feature (me thinks).

[Second 0]

...as best skrmishes i had in OFP was against AI which was ordered to take cover in woods with "_x disableai {target}" foreach units this -line

That doesn't give them the take cover command.

No it doesn't... But engage-at-will gives. That line just makes sure that they keep hiding and shooting when opportunity rises and not to performing suicide engagings.

Wrong again. You order them to take cover with the "take cover" command.

Well to be exact: I don't order them anything, but AI squad leader does (by engage-at-will).

[Maddmatt 1]

Well to be exact: I don't order them anything, but AI squad leader does (by engage-at-will).

"Engage at will" and "Take cover" are two different commands. Ordering them to do one isn't the same as the other

[Second 0]

Well to be exact: I don't order them anything, but AI squad leader does (by engage-at-will).

"Engage at will" and "Take cover" are two different commands. Ordering them to do one isn't the same as the other

AI leader gives to it's group members a "take cover"-command as danger has presented itself (in engage-at-will) (how long do you think this can go on before lock? )