Personal wishlist.. to add to the other 4000

[Saphirefenix 0]

I noticed in the request summary there was the inclusion of a jump option for obstacles, but not to use it to dodge fire. If there is any jump feature it is bound to be used to dodge fire. Instead maybe have an Assassins creed style climb ability for obstacles... not the whole crazy setup, but just that when you walk up to something and keep walking into it you will climb up it if its climbable, ie. has something to grab onto or you can jump and reach the top.

If its too high to jump and its a smooth wall for example, then you have to go around.

Although there are the occasional low ... stubs for lack of a better word. and sidewalks that for some reason you have to run at full tilt to get over in ArmA.

And this way when you eject from a helicopter and land on a building you dont have to break your legs jumping off, you can hang off the edge and drop.

And obviously if its too high you will still break your legs and die.

For some reason I felt compelled to share that even though I probably shouldn't be creating a new thread and its already to late to put it in if they wanted too lol.

and AI of course, better AI.... as someone stated before, with personalities, emotional AI, so when you create units in the editor (or selected randomly if they still include warfare in ArmA 2) you can select a behavior type, agressive tend to shoot more and do not react so harshly to incoming fire, UNLESS WOUNDED. Cautious try to stay in cover and shoot, when they are being supressed they tend to panic more when the bullets are coming at them and they are more likely to run, go prone, move to a safer location, than another AI. Then balanced which balances the two.

Some AI behavior type that fits a marksman (give the AI an SPR and they go ape **** shooting everything in sight, 2 kills later they have no ammo left lol) so they only shoot when they have a clear target that they can hit with a.. 75% chance instead of shooting at anything as long as it has a 0.000001% chance, which wastes ammo, snipers should not be suppressing the enemy unless told too, and even then, only direct shots designed to keep the enemies heads down (such as shooting a shot down the street at the corner where the enemy wants to move around, so they cant pop around the corner, and if TOLD to the sniper will stay where he is and watch, firing at targets even if he has barely any chance of hitting them, such as a foot sticking around the corner.

But only when set too, other than that they aim.

AI medics who's priority is to drag people to safety (which adds the need for an AI danger assessment ability, if any known targets can hit XXX location, dont move there; if the enemy has been aware of your team for a while, they would have a chance to flank, so the AI medics search for an area covered by the direction of the enemy and both sides, but not the back as that is practically immposible. Sides can be considered covered by Friendly players on either side, so dragging a wounded member smack center of the team would be a high saftey area, unless of course they are getting shot at, which the AI would detect..

And of course seeing that, ArmA2 should use the medic abilities that were modded into ArmA, bandaging to stop bleeding, first aid if they are severely wounded or immobilized, dragging them, if they cant move or can only move prone, to a safe area for first aid treatment.

And of course, AI that will know when a member is wounded and adjust tactics accordingly, so if your Automatic rifleman just went down and the medic needs to drag him and heal, your team wont go run off randomly and leave the medic to fend for himself out in the open. And an AI script that detects the medic, so if two members are down and the medic is currently moving to, dragging, healing etc of one member the next available member will go and drag the person off, try and heal, and if they need a medic, they will call one.. and the medic will actually come over immediately after healing the one they are on. Instead of 10 minutes later - never like the ArmA mod lol.

And back onto squad mates supporting each other, when they are being suppressed any member not pined down or getting shot at if it isn't suppressive fire, will try to break the contact, either by shooting the person, or by returning suppressive fire long enough for the other member to move into better cover.

And back to behavior/emotions... it should change with the situation. If your team just lost 6 men the team members will be more careful and wont go running out into the open. And death as well, there should also be an AI setting that determines their stomach. So AI 1 has a rating of (scale 0.1-1.0) 0.4 and he sees 13 enemies just get mowed down he will lose morale and lose focus, he will move a little less carefully. But IF ENGAGED, adrenaline kicks in of course, basic survival instincts, he will function as normal for the duration of the firefight. Morale would then be run by team mates deaths, you wont care about the enemy anymore when they are shooting at you, but when you see 10 of your own members (not just YOUR team, but allies as well) getting killed the AI will lose morale again, and lose combat effectiveness (as a 0.4 rating he is just below average) might panic and run away depending on numbers, if you started with 40 and only lost 20 (if he saw the 20 die) he would be really disturbed and probably lose some effectiveness. But this should also depend on the type of personality, some people would lay down and die if they saw 20 of their friends just get mowed down, but some would take it well, and try to avenge their deaths tactically and doing the right thing by not breaking down, while others would go into a frenzy and try and kill ever last enemy in the area (disobeying orders POSSIBLY if they have an extremely aggressive personality)

Now if you only had 25, and you lost 20... your pretty much on your own right now and the enemy obviously has a better chance of winning. If the AI saw all 20 die within a short period of time (5 minutes lets say) then mr 0.4 would run away.

But if it took a while, lets say warfare style while capturing 2 towns you lose 3 on the way in, 4 inside, then 8 on the way in to the next town and 5 inside, now your down to 5, your AI would have a way higher chance of retreating if things went south now that you lost 20. but not all at once.

Now 0.1 rating... can kill while under fire, but when team mates are injured and killed he will panic and might retreat if .. 2 die..

If he SEES dying enemies, or sees his own kills (ex. Walks past them on the street) he may break down and start disobeying orders (not running away, but if you tell him to move to the south wall, he may not move away from it when you first order him too)

*NOW.. none of that is expected what so ever. Except for behaviour settings.

I would be 150% satisfied with better path finding, my favorite example being the church hill in Pariaso, its a cobblestone style floor built on a hill with the church and etc on it.. but the AI cant walk on the cobblestone, its no higher than the sidewalks in the city streets, but the AI cannot get ontop of it, and if you place them ON it.. they cant get off.

AI cant go down alley ways either, they always refuse to walk with you through the archway into the garden and walk all the way around (into enemy fire because of course your trying to sneak up on them THROUGH the garden) and into the main opening in the wall for example. and in cities with those raised platforms with stairs leading up and buildings on top etc. AI cant go up the stairs and RARELY can actually go on the platform itself. They seem to only walk on terrain and not objects. Including buildings, I MH-6 dropped my team off on a small building with stair access... and they just refused to walk down the stairs with me.

And if ArmA2 uses at LEAST the combat upgrades the AI already have. Its quite a formidable fight out in the open as long as there aren't any trees to get stuck in or buildings etc.

And reaction time needs to be simulated along with that behavior settings, so when you ambush someone or get ambushed it surprises them. When your squad blasts a BMP with an m136 the AI shouldn't just pop out and start shooting RIGHT AT YOU. There needs to be some form of surprise and panic, as there is with human players.

If I'm walking down a street and all the sudden blam, someone opens up on us with LMG's and rifles, and grenades, I dont immediately point and shoot them. I panic, I have no idea where they are, I seek cover or if I see fire coming from the direction where the cover is (they are using it themselves for the ambush) I will go prone and hide behind whatever I can, THEN assess where they are and open up on them.

If I see a tank around the corner I will pop back around the corner, and if its JUST a tank or only supported by 1 or 2 infantry, I will grab my rocket and pop around and blast it then hide, reload do it again if it wasnt already destroyed, then pull out my rifle and take the infantry out if the explosion didn't kill them. If its 2 tanks, 2 tanks supported by 10 or so infantry (as in a squad of infantry following the tanks) or even 1 tank supported by a squad of infantry, 4 and up, usually around 10 infantry, I will flank around the side and not engage the armor directly, if I have another AT with me I will split the squad in half and IF they can reach the other side send them there, if not then just flank from different angles and try to fire both AT's really close together so they tank doesnt have time to respond, reload, reposition, as the AI know where you just popped out of (unless you surprised them of course)

Then fire again at the next tank, this time with infantry support as well, then carry the infantry battle from there.

Another thing would be follow distances, so you can set formation distances, long, medium, close. Where long they spread out, medium sticks around normal formation, and close, where they stick tight to the leader (used for moving around tight spaces such as forests and towns without losing your AI, or AI half in the trees and half out.

**And of course AI cover system... so when moving through a town they stick to the sides of buildings, and wont run around a corner (having everyone standing behind the corner, but because ArmA default pathfinding and formation spacing sucks, that one guy decides to stand out in the middle of the intersection and get mowed down signaling where your team is)

And if there are any obstacles at all that can be used as cover from incoming enemy fire (friendly vehicles, barrels, rocks, trees, sand bags etc.) they will move to those positions.

and depending on what AI behavior setting they have will determine how often, and when to move into the cover.

A cautious AI will move into cover immediately, but an aggressive AI will just go prone and return fire, unless they start getting shot at themselves and the enemy is getting close, then they will either crawl back until they cant be hit, THEN move for cover, or just crawl/crouch walk (or run depending on the situation) over to the cover.

And this is probably so long its unreadable.. but I just HAD to get it out.

I REALLY hope to god that the AI on ArmA2 is good.. I don't want it to turn into a bunny hopping multiplayer ONLY experience like Battlefield games, CoD4, Battlefront, etc.

[SaBrE_UK 0]

[Saphirefenix 0]

I know.. I write too much. But to sum it up, a climbing system to get over obstacles similar to that in Assassins creed so you can jump and grab ledges to get up, or hang and drop etc without killing yourself.

And better AI with behavior settings, IE. Agressive, passive, cautious, coward, precise, kamikaze etc. which affects their combat style.

thats the rough of it lol.

[SaBrE_UK 0]

That's better I read some of the main post and they're sensible suggestions on the most part. You've documented ArmA's game-killing bugs and glitches well

[Brendon 0]

I'd like it to be easier for adding civilian life in the Mission Editor. Also more furniture in houses.

[Saphirefenix 0]

Mmmmh, I have to agree, civilians and furnature would be an immensely positive addition... you walk into a house with NO COVER what so ever... its scary.

And civilians would be awesome, doing a mission where ROE actually apply would be great. So far you just have to avoid shooting friendlies. But can you imagine the impact of a mission if you accidentally laser guided a bomb into an apartment complex full of civies..... would make a nice story for the guys in Leavenworth lol.

1 "So, why you in here?"

2 "I guided a bomb into an apartment complex and killed over 300 innocent men women and children"

1 *slides away*

"uhh... thats... bad.."

2 "yeah, so why are you in here?"

1 "I shot my CO in the foot with a flare gun" (Ok, not sure if you would go to Leavenworth for that, but its funny... I think)

lol

[Brendon 0]

Mmmmh, I have to agree, civilians and furnature would be an immensely positive addition... you walk into a house with NO COVER what so ever... its scary.

And civilians would be awesome, doing a mission where ROE actually apply would be great. So far you just have to avoid shooting friendlies. But can you imagine the impact of a mission if you accidentally laser guided a bomb into an apartment complex full of civies..... would make a nice story for the guys in Leavenworth lol.

1 "So, why you in here?"

2 "I guided a bomb into an apartment complex and killed over 300 innocent men women and children"

1 *slides away*

"uhh... thats... bad.."

2 "yeah, so why are you in here?"

1 "I shot my CO in the foot with a flare gun" (Ok, not sure if you would go to Leavenworth for that, but its funny... I think)

lol

This did apply one time in Queens Gambit, if I recall correctly.

[Saphirefenix 0]

well.. unfortunately I don't own queens gambit and actually only bought my own copy of ArmA from Direct2Drive yesterday...

Let me tell you, I have never borrowed a better game from a friend EVER, most of the time I just play till I get bored and return them, but this time.. I HAD to have my own.

[4 IN 1 0]

in fact if we put all our effort to sort out suggestions and ideas and put it all together, take away the stupid, take away the duplicate, and take away the impossibles, the list will still goes around like 3000 items