AI cannot select ammo for guns

[krycek 349]

K guys after I've played a few missions with tank battles I can't really understand this AI.

Didn't tried with the Opfor tanks but the M1A1 crewman AI is really weird.For example I've set up a mission where I have to destroy three T-72 with 4 Abrams.Everything goes smooth and my tanks wipe out the floor with those T-72 in seconds,but other times in the very same mission the same Abrams refuse to take out the enemy tanks,why??They simply stand there like cows(or marching like cows) while those T 72 shoot'em to pieces while they don't fire a shell.No obstacle in their path nothing,flat terrain,the enemy tank is about 100 meters from it and my allied tanks are hit by a brain disease or something and do nothing,while other times they destroy them easily.I know that sometimes they can kill your gunner or destroy your turret in one shot but it's not the case here because I saw my tanks moving their turret before enemy armor decided to put them to rest.I even let them free hands without restraining them with orders.

So I'm a little confused,it's a glitch,bug or some kind of idiotic balance?Anyone else experienced this with tank battles?

I'm running the 505 release patched to 1.5,not sure if the beta patch fix this because I haven't tried yet(waiting the full patch).

[b1sh0p 0]

If tank damage is anything like OFP, sometimes your cannon elevation can be damaged. You can still turn the turret, but can't elevate the barrel. That could be why they weren't engaging.

Just a thought.

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

I think its just a simple error that occured there... it simple "halt" in the communication of the AI.

Nothing too serious, we've had this in OFp too where a tank looked at you with his barrel pointed at you, but didnt fire when you lay still.

Simply restart the map ... or the game and they will attack again.

[krycek 349]

Well SOBR if this is an error it doesn't happen that rare in my game,it's like roulette,sometimes they charge like terminators and other times they're hit by brain damage.

I know about the error in Ofp but that happened while you're infantry,in tank engagements I haven't encountered it.

Also one more thing,I noticed that AI tank gunners choose their targets very weird,for example between a T-72 and a Brdm,my allied tank engaged the Brdm while the T-72 destroyed it of course,or same scenario only instead of Brdm was a machine gun nest.They should have some kind of lethality list in their little AI brains something like:machine gun post=flies in the wind,enemy tank=we're screwed if we don't act fast.

I know Arma covers many fields of combat and I don't expect Steel Beasts simulation in this domain but at least I want the AI to react a little better in tank warfare or improved in future patches.

[fireship4 0]

I think there is a value for how threatening a certain thing is to other units, must just be a bug or somehting.

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

Hmm yeah your probably right .. Im sorry, didnt encounter the AI tank problem. I didnt touch the armour anyway after I realized how badly edited their configs are.

Yeah the priority list should of course be in ....

[Törni 0]

If a vehicle has more than two ammo types available for the main gun AI does not fire at infantry (with a gun). That's why we never see a a tank firing HE shells at infantry targets. Only MGs fire.

If you remove all other ammo types from the gun then HE rounds get fired. How AI is put together I do not know, but my guess is that it just picks the most powerful round and since it usually cannot be fired at infantry, HE rounds are not used.

Would not have noticed this if I was not messing around with vehicle configs at the moment.

[Maddmatt 1]

OFP had this problem too, except that the AI tanks did use the SABOT rounds against infantry

HEAT rounds in ArmA seem underpowered, you can't bring down a building with a few of them.

[Törni 0]

Should be easy to fix though by adding a tag to ammo config telling if the ammo type could be used against infantry or not.

Then just modify AI's behavior accordingly.

[RN Malboeuf 12]

Quote[/b] ]Then just modify AI's behavior accordingly.

It will be quite hard

Remember that Arma is almost the the same OFP with enchanced graohics. Most bugs&features are the same.

You can force ai to use proper shell with config tricks (play Liberation Mod for ex.), but it works still not as good as we wanted

[walker 0]

Hi all

As a test tell the AI tank to switch to HE first.

Should be available as a radio 0 6.

Kind Regards walker

[Törni 0]

But what about SP or missions where the enemy (AI) is manning the tanks? Is there a way to get them to select the correct ammo type?

At least it in configs it makes no difference into which order I put the ammo types.

[fasad 1]

I remember seeing a relevant fixed or at least acknowledged bug somewhere. It was caused by the inability of the tank commander to tell his crew to fire etc under certain conditions.

[Dwarden 1125]

MODedit: merged with another AI thread ...