How to influence AI's rat of fire?

[zwobot 22]

Is there a way to prevent AI soldiers (especially in your squad but in general too) to fire in full auto mode? It is very annoying when you order the AI to target something and they use all their ammunition in less than a minute becase of constant bursts or full automatic fire in case of machineguns.

I think BIS should give us a command interface to influence the AI rate of fire in combination with commands for point or area fire without a proper target like an enemy soldier - just select units, tell them the method of fire and click somewhere to designate the target zone.

Edit: Could some moderator please change the title of the thread to "... AI's rate of fire" instead "...rat of fire"? Thank you

[Col. Faulkner 0]

[...] commands for point or area fire without a proper target like an enemy soldier - just select units, tell them the method of fire and click somewhere to designate the target zone.

Yes! That's what I want too!

[dirtylarrygb 0]

[...] commands for point or area fire without a proper target like an enemy soldier - just select units, tell them the method of fire and click somewhere to designate the target zone.

Yes! That's what I want too!

I agree, that would be much better.

[Bingo 0]

/signed.

Real soldiers correct me if I'm wrong, but in the heat of the battle isn't it faster to say "shoot anything that comes out of that damn street" rather than orchestrating each 1 on 1?

It'd be great to order the MG to lay down suppressing fire whilst me and the other guys sneak around a different way.

PS: A "take one for the team" option would be cool too

[Kwato 0]

Agreed. Area fire would be nice indeed.

[zwobot 22]

I wonder what one has to do to make "official" requests for new / improved features? Send PM to a dev on the forum? Email to BIS or the publisher?

Anyway I'm afraid they are very busy with building the US release and fixing more urgent stuff before reacting to any suggestions for new features in the first place.

Quote[/b] ]Real soldiers correct me if I'm wrong, but in the heat of the battle isn't it faster to say "shoot anything that comes out of that damn street" rather than orchestrating each 1 on 1?

That would be good to combine with suppression fire: tell the squad/team/individual soldier to area fire an area and if there are visible enemy targets they fire upon them - if there were no targets they just fire in the area (suppression).

[Col. Faulkner 0]

There doesn't seem to be any formal mechanism for

making enhancement requests. The BIS team do seem

to take notice of items of especial interest on these

forums, though (see for example how they changed

the aircraft flight behaviour and some aspects of the

RPG-7 simulation in response to discussion on the forum).

There is a "watch" command already. You can select

one or more units, hold down the "watch direction" key

(I have the left ctrl set to this, I can't remember what

it is by default) turn the cursor to the desired direction

and click, and the units will turn to face that direction.

This more or less covers the "...enemy in that area -

watch and shoot!" or "...when enemy appears -

rapid fire!" sort of FCO already, but not the "area fire"

concept of course. It'd also be good to be able to explicitly

order grenades to be launched by the AI at particular

areas/targets.

edit: It appears that you can file enhancement requests on

the BIS ArmA bugtracker:

http://bugs.armed-assault.net/main_page.php

[Second 0]

/signed.

Real soldiers correct me if I'm wrong, but in the heat of the battle isn't it faster to say "shoot anything that comes out of that damn street" rather than orchestrating each 1 on 1?

It'd be great to order the MG to lay down suppressing fire whilst me and the other guys sneak around a different way.

But AI does that. Just don't give them targets and they shoot when they spot enemy. Using watching direction is very good way to increase possibilities that they also look (and point with their guns) where they should. But if you are after somekind of "cover arces" or firing zones, then your right. They would provide useful...

MGs suppressive fire isn't effective in ArmA, as there is no suppression. You just would kill your MG-guy by ordering him to shoot enemy positions, because he reveals his positions with shooting and enemy shoots him instead... Your MG-guy would last about 5-10 seconds... Well that depends of enemy equipment.

EDIT: Default button for watch-command is left alt (same that enables freelook)

[zwobot 22]

There is a "watch" command already. You can select

one or more units, hold down the "watch direction" key

(I have the left ctrl set to this, I can't remember what

it is by default) turn the cursor to the desired direction

and click, and the units will turn to face that direction.

This more or less covers the "...enemy in that area -

watch and shoot!" or "...when enemy appears -

rapid fire!" sort of FCO already, but not the "area fire"

concept of course.

I know of the watch command, but it often won't work. I think it has something to do with combat mode/behaviour of the unit and enemies nearby. The watch command also does not guarantee that the unit will fire enemies that are in the watched direction.

I cannot agree that the watch command that we already have covers the "rapid area fire" you mentioned. The reaction of AI is too unpredictable for me.

What I have in mind is something like in "Full Spectrum Warrior" where you get a circle on screen to designate point and suppressing fire. The circle you get in FSW is very small, for ArmA it should be of variale size depending on the players needs.

That could be used to assign fire sectors to soldiers/teams in combination with different methods of fire like "suppress this sector", "fire on enemies you see in this sector". Rate of fire command is needed as well of course.

MGs suppressive fire isn't effective in ArmA, as there is no suppression. You just would kill your MG-guy by ordering him to shoot enemy positions, because he reveals his positions with shooting and enemy shoots him instead... Your MG-guy would last about 5-10 seconds... Well that depends of enemy equipment.

Thats true, so the "suppression fire" is pretty useless for now. But fire sectors are definately useful, and the current watch command is not enough.

[Col. Faulkner 0]

Quote[/b] ]

I cannot agree that the watch command that we already have covers the "rapid area fire" you mentioned. The reaction of AI is too unpredictable for me.

I didn't say anything about "rapid area fire" (whatever that is).

I was just mentioning the "Watch" command as a stop gap - I

totally agree that it's less than reliable.

[zwobot 22]

I didn't say anything about "rapid area fire" (whatever that is).

I was just mentioning the "Watch" command as a stop gap - I

totally agree that it's less than reliable.

Yeah sorry I mixed that up somehow.

I have made a quick test mission to see how well the watch command works for fire sectors:

player's squad is behind two Opfor fire teams in line formation and hold fire. The enemy teams are at about 45 degrees to the left and right of the player's squad.

Then I order my squad to watch the direction of the left enemy team. They don't do it: they watch the direction for maybe 1 second and then turn back to 12 o'clock or whatever. As soon as I order fire at will my squad fires at both enemy teams.

[Col. Faulkner 0]

I have made a quick test mission to see how well the watch command works for fire sectors [...]

Yes, "Watch" is often disappointing, but currently it's about

the best there is available (without messing about with ad-

hoc scripting stuff). Maybe we should try to thrash out some

sort of properly detailed specification here for what should be

added, with good illustrative material so the BIS people can

clearly understand what we want and why, so a proper

enhancement report could be submitted to BIS. Better fire

control would go a long way to solving the currently

infuriating problems of commanding AI men in the field.

As a corollary to this, I'd also say that proper fire suppression

is an essential feature that needs to be added somehow.

Any simulation of infantry and tank combat is fundamentally

and profoundly flawed without this.

[zwobot 22]

Agreed about the detailed specification stuff.

I have found a place in the Biki to submit suggestions by the way.

I reckon that we won't see (improved) suppression simulation in ArmA soon as this is something very complex. I am more confident about the fire sectors and rate of fire things though.

[sbsmac 0]

Quote[/b] ]I have found a place in the Biki to submit suggestions by the way

Note that the BTS is the preferred place for enhancement requests. The Biki list will soon be removed.

[zwobot 22]

Isn't the BTS for bugs only? I don't think it is good to fill it with feature requests unless someone official said it is okay.