Friendly AI..

[Wobble 1]

Ok, this isnt really a complaint.. just more of.. stories about the Arma AI and how they remind me less of soldiers.. and more like... the 3 stooges..

for example one time I was playing a mission I had whipped up where in there was a small town with 20-30 OPFOR and I had 5 guys and a HMMV..

I get #2 to be the driver and leave him behind.. my plan being to sneak within strking range.. fire off a few vollyeys and retreat back.. and attack from a different angle.. and if I start getting abused too bad.. call #2 to come get us out of there..

Well the hummer is in the middle of the road facing the direction I will need it to go.. #2 is of course sitting in the drivers seat with some retarded look on his face..

anyway we do 2 hit and runs and start to get flanked a little more than I care.. so we get back to the road and I call #2 to come get us...

Now.. he is definatly moving.. but where I couldent tell you.. we are all prone in some high grass next to the road fighting for our lives..

I hear thumping and bumping.. foreward, reverse.. the next thing I know.. there he is.. not coming down the road.. but coming out of the bushes... going about 40 MPH... backwards.. the Hummer is fully Hoed out.. all broken windows.. etc.. and it wasnt from hostile fire...

insted of following the road.. he... apparently drove down it about 100 feet.. then took the scienic rout out into a field for a little while.. the field had about 5 trees spread out in it.. He made sure to hit all of them... at least once.. then came barreling backwards out of the bushes... narrowly missing yours truely mind you...

as soon as.. what was left of our vehicle was stopped, I ordered #2 out of the vehicle and shot him in the face... Mercy killing if you ask me..

long story short the HMMV was so sh!thoused it would barely move and we got mowed down by 10 or so.. OPFOR who were probably laughing their asses off.

another "incident" I was on top of a large building.. I didnt sprout wings from my ass and fly up there either.. there was a ladder...

I call my AT guy to come up there and take a position.. I hear "moving on" then a long silence.... then "negative!"..

after this repeats a few times I climb my irate ass down and find retard standing right in front of the ladder.. looking confused... he didnt seem to know what the ladder was or was for.. Im half suprised he didnt shoot an AT4 at it.. lord knows he will shoot it at anything else.. empty vehicles, single soldiers, houses.. trees... the sun.. etc..

I asked him once more to get his special needs ass up there and all he did was spin around in a circle like he was trying to moon walk.. there is no room in this man's army for anyone remotley resembeling Michael Jackson... I shot him , took his AT4 and shot it at a cloud.. he would have wanted it that way.

there are MANY MANY more instances like this.. ill probably add more later.

[icebreakr 3159]

You keep 'em coming, I had a great laugh

I remember one friendly HUMAN player with AT4... we were standing on a nice flat field awaiting transport chopper. And we heard on teamspeak "I snatched enemy Mi-17 and bringing it over!" - we gave him a couple of "roger-thats" via voice comm. Then -just to be sure- I wrote down "friendly mi-17 coming over. Don't shoot guys". Mi-17 is landing and there's around 10 guys waiting the fast ride to the island... as m17 lowers to around 10m off the ground we heard a lough HOOOSH as friendly player hits AT-4 into the windshield of the chopper... large kaboom as we're running away from the burning debris and then ... long silence & scratching on the head

[Col.Flanders 0]

Had a cracking laugh at your "Diaries of an AI grunt" stories!

Yep, I know it - and that's why it's so funny, 'coz it's true.

They do seem to loose a few IQ points when piloting vehicles is concerned. I was playing a co-op and had my girlfriend, yes, I said girlfriend in the gunner's seat of a hummer manning the TOW while an agent Smith climbed into the driver's seat. I was about 1800m away and severely pinned by armour at the time. I ordered '2' (agent Smith) to move to a grid co-ordinate where there would be a line of sight onto the armour that by now had me prone behind 30 inches of waist-high concrete. In my current state, the series of "oohs" and "arghs" escaping me indicated that I couldn't walk anymore so the 1800m leopard crawl to freedom was my only option and completely out of the question.

His reply - "2, moving on!"

I turned to my GF's screen. There was the hummer, not moving *chuggachuggachuggachugga*

I knew I had a tank barrel with HEAT aimed right on my position but luckily the crew of the enemy T-72 went to the same school as my AI driver. Had this not been the case, they'd have rolled that thing right up to me and sent me to my maker in no time at all.

"2, MOVE TO CL55!!"

"2, roger."

*chuggachuggachuggachugga*

"2, fall back into formation!"

"2, moving on."

*vrrrrooooom!*

WHOOOHOOO!

The most triumphant moment of the mission had arrived! If only I had more than a half-pint of blood trickling through my veins...

I wish we could convey a sense of urgency to them - maybe if we loaded them up with the heaviest ammo, all M136 rounds, shot them in the foot and made them run laps around Sahrani after they screwed up, they'd start to get the idea.

[Tunip666 0]

Wobble you have just put a massive smile on my face!

[MehMan 0]

Ah this reminds me of a mission I made.

I put a couple of squads with APC support far away from town and two more squads waiting at the town waiting for us so we can start the attack. So the AI squad leader ordered us to get in the APC, and it started driving. But suddenly it steered offroad instead of staying on the road, because a bridge was infront of us. Grr, ok, but then it also had to cross some power lines. So it goes to the power lines and starts doing circles, after a minute or two, it decides it's now time to get over. Ok, it goes over the power lines, finally, starts driving at full speed towards the two waiting squads, who are lying down, I think it's gonna pass them, but NOOOOOOO, the AI just drove straight through those two squads killing half of them and the decided to reverse to kill what's left of those two squads! YAY FOR THE AI!

[-CS-SOBR-1st-I-R- 0]

Had a cracking laugh at your "Diaries of an AI grunt" stories!

Same here !!

is there an option to subscribe to your stories ??

Consider writing such stories as your profession, you'll get rich by that

[Col. Faulkner 0]

"20 or 30 OPFOR...I had 5 guys and a [car]". Now that is hilarious.    

[INNOCENT&CLUELESS 0]

Wheeled vehicles are always a problem in both OFP and ArmA.

Basically due to the way BI implemented pathfinding (I do NOT say it is good or bad) AI always tend to vitually demand to much space to pass a narrow place. Both for infantry and for any kind of vehicle.

There are objects (some concrete/brick doors) where no AI would ever go through, but in reality you could pass it hand in hand with another soldier.

Next odd thing is that the path cost calc seems to be tied with the "attention/alert" state of the unit e.g. in highest alert they go straight not using roads or at least much less. I did not found a way to control that independently.

The safest way to make the unit following your way is to have it in view distance and set his waypoints in small 5m chunks if you are in a town or if many objects are around.

I do not see any chance to improve the path finding within the ArmA lifetime significant. So better get used to it and leave vehicles outside the towns.

The most terrible behavior for me is that vehicles approaching slopes which they can not enter and hanging there forever while infantry avoids slopes which they could take easily.

Since I do not know how BI did it I can only guess, but to me it seems that BI does not consider the rise from one path segment to the next segment in a proper way. If you have a height change over several segment you could calculate the steepness and hence you could mark this as area to avoid (higher resulting path cost) or even as an no-go area which you should not enter at all and if you are in, you have to leave to the segment with the lowest cost.

Mainly amphibious APCs try to leave the water where it is impossible due to the rapid rise (close to bridges) instead of seeking for a better place.

[icebreakr 3159]

Wobble you have just put a massive smile on my face!

Yeah, but he's still going to court-martial...

[Commando84 0]

i was playing one of my own missions where a sf team tries to escape from a opfor occupied city near a harbor and when we reach the harbor i kill some troops there and then i know as soon as those troops died the rest of the opfor squads and tanks and stuff will get to us cause of the urban patrol script and the fast moving a.i. anyways telling my men to get in the boat and they stand still and say negative, i repeat the order get in boat but they are still negative. Somehow when they are at the harbor or docks area they seem to think that they cant walk on the paved harbor pieces ended up with leaving them behind and took the boat myself stepped on the gas and raced off to the end trigger while getting shot at by artillery guns and a few other boats. found out later on a retry that if i put a boat near the shoreline instead of the dock and then order the men in when they are near the beach its a higher chance that they will get in.

[robert(uk) 0]

Hehe, I had a right laugh reading your stories guys. Thanks for those...

[INNOCENT&CLUELESS 0]

I did not needed to shot any AI, AI tends to suicide.

I remember a crCTI@DVD in OFP on Atlantis, I collected cash for a huge massive armor force to roll once around the whole donut style island. Meanwhile I defended the northern part successfully against the opposite. Then I sent all armored forces from top north-east to the airport in the middle - and checked to late the path calculated.

Almost all tanks ended in an flat, flooded area (1-3m deep) not excluded by the path calculation. Since the damage model of ArmA can not model different kind of damage, they simply exploded while most of the crews could bail out and walk to the coast.

Basically I lost a complete army.

In ArmA I see the same tendency to cross flat, water flooded areas where the tanks earning damage and explode.

[Average Joe 0]

Class read mate, tell it how it is

[-CS-SOBR-1st-I-R- 0]

Now Wobble where is our next story ? Keep us entertained

[deanosbeano 0]

lol fantastic stuff

i cant explain ladder

but i soon learned even tho 2 may not be in the fire fight he does become aware of enemy through your leadership and you must tell hime to feel safe before you ask him to pick you up, or he thinks he is underfire ,walking and tries to use bushes as cover lol.

keep em coming there funny .

[ck-claw 1]

took his AT4 and shot it at a cloud.. he would have wanted it that way.

Absolute Class!

[celery 8]

One time I was piloting a Little Bird to Corazol with my AI squad. As I landed on the roof of one of the bigger buildings, I told my squad to get out while I go to another roof myself. Problem was, by the time I was ready to get off the chopper on another roof, I saw my squad in a neat queue hiking off the roof one after another. *splat*... *splat*... *splat*...*splat*... *splat*!

Left me speechless.

[Wobble 1]

Last night right after I wrote these I was bored and wanted to killage before bed so I made a little mission with some enemy armor in a village..  

I set 6 OPFOR tanks (not grouped) to patrol around within the city,

I started myself and 3 other tanks about 5000M away next to a smaller village...

to get into the city I had to cross a bridge..

well I get all my tanks  following me in a somewhat non-autistic manner down the road towards the city.. just before we reach the bridge we get our first contact, an OPFOR tank spotted us and opened fire, missing, one of my AI tanks popped him pretty much immediatly..

we went into line formation 300m before the bridge and sat there.. seeing if I coud pick one more tank off before we entered the city and it turned into a knife fight in a phone booth.

after a few min couldent see anything.. I had all my AI shut off their engines..  and I could ehar the OPFOR tanks moving, bang and clanging into anything and everything over there.. but still couldent see anything..  so I gave the command to form a compact colum and we started across the bridge...

just as Im reaching the opposite side.. I hear "where are you!"

which is the second worst thing you can hear in this game ("# report status!" being the worst)..

I had my face buried in the sight looking around so I had not been paying attention to what the rest of these assclows had been doing..

I turn around and.. nobody is there..  where did they go?

I park my tank behind a house and get out and walk back to the bridge.. and see..  something very much amusing and irritating..

my 3 AI tanks had.. insted of crossing the bridge.. tried to drive around it..

now all 3 were side by side on the steep bank by the water with their barrels IN the water... like 3 elephants taking a drink..  

I try to restore order and tell them to move to a spot before about 300m before the bridge.l. but all they do is start this bizarre mating dance where they spin around in circles and shout "NEGATIVE!"

finally I get back in my tank go BACK across the bridge and walk down to the water ..  In order to get close to the tanks I have to make everybody get out, because they were all twisting and gyrating like 3 fat guys that go ahold of an 8-ball...

1 by 1 I drive 3 slightly damp tanks back up the hill and part them,  tell their idiot crews to get back in..

we start across the bridge.. this time moving very slow..

It looks like all is well then the last tank.. as if in a final act of defiance.. makes a beeline for the water again.. and goes all the way in the water.. and just sites there..  apparently proud of his now amphibious M1..

I just carry on with my other 2 tanks and move into the city.. forever taunted by the last one shouting "WHERE ARE YOU" every so often..

after all that all but one of the AI OPFOR tanks had managed to wedge themselves beween buildings or other objects and were thus easy pickings..  the one that didnt get stuck popped one of my AI tanks but then got taken out..

I never went back for the AI friendly in the river, I assume he got out.  but if you see that tank on autotrader.com, buyer beware.. im sure it has mold and water damage.

[HulkingUnicorn 0]

Quote[/b] ]...like elephants drinking water

Thank you man  

[esti_the_big 0]

funny stuff ... but it shouldn't be happening. Somethings terribly wrong with the game

[deanosbeano 0]

absolutely hilarious , if this dont make a sticky ,be sure you create a blog , its made me try arma one more time ( i may even patch to 1.05 if the ai arent this funny in 1.02

[maddogx 13]

Quote[/b] ]It looks like all is well then the last tank.. as if in a final act of defiance.. makes a beeline for the water again..

forever taunted by the last one shouting "WHERE ARE YOU" every so often..

Man, that's almost Shakespearean quality.

You have me in stitches... XD

[Deadfast 43]

You should write a book, man !

Keep us supplied .

I was really laughing my ass of .

However, on the other hand it's very sad. It's sad that those things are even happening.

[-CS-SOBR-1st-I-R- 0]

but all they do is start this bizarre mating dance where they spin around in circles and shout "NEGATIVE!"

LMAO

[chris3270 0]

You know with all the pain I have experienced from banging my head on the desk in front of me (press board is softer then oak I found out) from the uter stupidity of the AI in this game the laugh I got from this POST was worth every minute of it.