AI behavior

[anguis 4]

Hi, folks!

I've been playing with various mods with different AI tweaks and, now, I'm wondering which AI enhancement modifications are your favorites. The ones I've been able to play with are

GL3 from SLX

WGL

ECP

Which is your favorite? Why? Which makes the AI seem most 'intelligent' to you?

Recommend any other mods with AI behavior tweaks that you like!

[zwobot 22]

I only tried WGL of the ones you mentioned and the increased engagement ranges alone are worth it for me. Unfortunately WGL is hardly played.

I haven't played ECP for years and SLX is a question mark for me.

[anguis 4]

Yeah, WGL is great - out of the three, it seems to me to be the one that gets me killed the quickest (not that I'm any kind of great player - I die pretty quickly with all of them). GL3/SLX seems the most dramatic, with its hit/wound effects (moans and groans) and the dragging. Being hunted by the GL3 AI in a building, while one of their wounded comrades is moaning/yelling outside makes for a memorable mission. They engage from quite a distance, too - possibly longer than WGL. I tested ECP (actually, GRAA+ECP), recently, with the 'Steal the Car' mission - it was pretty scary, as well.

I have a WGL+SLX setup that I have to test - I think that will be quite an unfriendly environment.

The reason that this is so interesting to me is that I've come to OFP after years of playing Joint Operations co-op. OFP AI seem 'alive' compared to the JO AI (to be fair to JO, it's really more of a human vs. human game - very fun). I see things in OFP that leave my jaw on the floor.

What do you all think about the different AI schemes? Can anyone shed any light on how the ECP and WGL AI have been tweaked (GL3 has been documented very well)? How about FDF? CSLA? Others?

[sanctuary 19]

In ECP , one of the major AI addition is their ability to share informations about their enemy position.

In vanilla OFP , if an AI detect an enemy, only the squad of this AI is made aware of the enemy position, excepted the AI squad that are using a GUARD waypoint, these one will recieve the information.

With ECP, the information is transmitted to most AI team allied to the one that spotted the enemy, even the teams not in a GUARD waypoint.

ECP allow AI to surrender, so it is sometime possible according to the situation that some AI of a nearly destroyed squad retreating may surrender instead of running away, the player can interact with them.

ECP has a dynamic speaking system, so you can hear AI shouting or talking during missions, instead of only reporting things by the radio.

WGL has the radio voices disabled, this help the AI to react quicker a -very lot- , as in OFP, as long as a radio sound voice is playing, the AI is stuck doing nothing. Without the radio voices, squad AI (and maybe enemy AI) are reacting immediately to a command.

That's extremely noticable in large tank combat in which playing as a tank commander can get you killed because the AI is busy waiting for several radio sound report before firing when you order it.

WGL and ECP has tweaked the config values sensitivity and sensitivityEar, both value affect how well an AI can hear or see.

With the default OFP values, you can sometime crawl on the ground at +/- 100m in front of an AI and despite the lack of cover this AI may not see you. With increased value, this does not happen anymore.

But it is a very sensitive change, as you can break some existing mission by setting values too high (regarding detections or triggers)

Another value that has an influence not on the AI, but on the feeling the player can have about being flanked is the formation distance, ECP and WGL has increased formation distance, so as the frontline is then larger, when an AI squad is on your position the extremities of it will then be able to flank you with more efficiency.

WGL has the AI able to rotate its head more than the default AI, this may help it to see you.

WGL has the AI that have an increased floating zone, this allow the AI to rotate its upper body more than with original OFP , and so you can sometime notice it running forward but with its body oriented to the left or right. This one may help the AI to shoot at you without having to wait as much time as default AI to rotate to face you.

SLX has a lot more AI features than ECP and WGL (Solus upgraded GL3 a very lot and basically wrote a Group Link 4 for his SLX mod) , the AI can carry wounded out of harm way, it can go into house to look for you, etc... but this comes with a price as that's the mod the most dependant on scripts and functions.

This mean it is very most heavy on ressource, and so crashes often.

Another feature that has a direct influence on the AI is the engagement range , basically the maxRange value of the class CfgAmmo in the config.

Sometime ingame you see an AI far away, he spots you too.

So you aim at it with your M16/AK74 and kill it.

But never this AI has tried to do the same to you, all it was doing was running in your overall direction.

Why this AI was not trying to shoot like you did, but was running to you ?

Because the MaxRange of the ammo his weapon was using was lower than the distance between you and it, so in fact it was running to you until the distance was lower than the MaxRange.

For some weapons with the default values, this value is obviously too small, as you the player can kill such AI while it can't and must approach you instead, while for some other it seems fine.

By example the M16 and AK74 ammo has the AI single shot maxrange at 200m, the AI burst fire at 250m and full auto at the same.

This means an AI with M16 and AK74 will not shoot at you at more than 250m, it will have to move to you before.

Now, an AI with a M60 or a PK has the ammo maxrange at 450m , this is why most of the time in mission when you are killed at long range, it is a machinegunner that did it.

And why when you play a mission in default OFP config, you just have to go prone at 400/500m and kill AI by dozen as most of them can't even return fire.

So you can see how interesting it can be to increase the maxRange of ammunitions and the AI sensitivity values, it allows it to shoot at you from longer range, allowing basically them to do the same as you can do.

But there is a need of being carefull, as if you increase the AI sensitivity it will allow it to see you from longer distance, that can be a problem with AT soldiers, as they are not always very good at aiming their launchers, and so with longer range they can waste more missiles.

That's probably why the LAW and AT missiles have a maxRange value by default of 250, so it does not enegage from too far as it misses a lot anyways.

FDF and CSLA are mostly BIS AI i think, nowhere as difficult to fight as it is with ECP/WGL/SLX.

[anguis 4]

Wow - awesome write-up, Sanctuary! Thanks!

You're definitely right about the performance cost of GL3/SLX - larger missions are barely playable (especially with dxdll active and graphics settings above the defaults). WGL sometimes bogs down, too (playing with the Ryan models pack). GRAA+ECP runs great. Your note about the information sharing of the AI is very interesting - expanded AI information sharing is what really got my attention when looking at the GL3 readme's. I'm starting to learn about mission creation and recently learned about the DAC tool. AI info sharing combined with DAC really gets the imagination running.

And, yes, I, along with several others, I'm sure, noted your mention of an ECP version of ww4, planned for the future. I'm looking forward to it!

Edited December 19, 2009 by Anguis
grammar

[DespairsRay 0]

ECP+SLX config is the best for sure, together with a few other scripts and tweaks that i've put together the AI is just great fun to watch and play against.

[zwobot 22]

In ECP , one of the major AI addition is their ability to share informations about their enemy position.

In vanilla OFP , if an AI detect an enemy, only the squad of this AI is made aware of the enemy position, excepted the AI squad that are using a GUARD waypoint, these one will recieve the information.

I don't know which information ECP makes the AI share. But basically this is possible with scripts too without any addon. AI infoshare script by General Barron is a must have in every mission I design.

[sanctuary 19]

If i remember well, the General Barron AI info share script you are refering to is actually the same as the one that is built-in ECP but improved by his author.

[anguis 4]

Yes, General Barron is credited with the ECP AI info sharing. One thing I just noticed - I had configured GRAA to work with SLX (I have about 50 different OFP shortcuts w/ various combinations of mods)! And, it seems to run with no lag (just tried 'Ambush' - ran great; stable, too). SLX AI combined with GRAA=winning combo!