BIS, get this tragedy with AI drivers in wheeled vehicles solved

[Jex =TE= 0]

Is it just my defective memory or did the AI drive far better in OFP - I don't remember them being as bad as they are in Arma?

[sobrek 0]

What was really working better in OFP is:

Queue up some vehicles in a colum, turn out, set the AIs to "safe", drive only at normal speed, dont cross bridges. They did follow really well on the street.

Now they are constantly turning left and right in a very erratic way and dont manage to follow you even at low speeds.

[Tex Zero 10]

I just watched a column of M1 tanks drive straight into a dam. Each one sunk and the crews were left swiming around the sunken vehicles. Surely the AI could be set to avoid driving directly into deep water?

The more I play this game the more I think I've paid BIS for the privilege of becoming a beta tester.

[Alex72 1]

Im preaty sure this was probably suggested, but why dont you like make a road, 2 lines the AI always follows (each side) and each vehicle has like a elyptical "dont you dare come here" area witch the AI would avoid. And the offroad would also be like a "i wouldnt go here if i were you" zone or something?

---------- Post added at 08:18 PM ---------- Previous post was at 08:14 PM ----------

Why are you so bitchy??? This is user feedback, the devs should look over it and maybe eaven find the answers in the wise community OFP has spawned...

The point of a game forum aint just "OMG ARMA2 is so fucking great im gonna buy 252323423 copies of it and give it to evrey pearson on the planet and then im gonna buy 3952035203502350 copies and give it to evrey animal on the planet (micro organisms inclouded)!!!!", or "wow last nights game was über sick".

Its here to guide the developers in the right direction witch the community thinks its best. The community is always right :D

You didnt get my post at all - go back to sleep.

[Deathstruck 375]

You didnt get my post at all - go back to sleep.

:icon_rolleyes:

[chaplainDMK 10]

You didnt get my post at all - go back to sleep.

No i actualy did, you were going fanboy on him because he is complaining that the game actualy has problems and he is trying to point them out.

Fine lets all be quiet.

BIS:

ArmA2 is perfect, nothing is wrong with it, for ArmA3 all you have to do is improve the graphics, nothing is wrong, the driver AI is perfect, vehicle damage models are unbelievably realistic, soldier AI is undestinguishable from humans etc.

I have yet herd of a game with no problems, and ArmA2 aint no exeption.

And nowhere did i notice a "Fix this or i wont buy the game" in his post...

[PRiME 1]

With AI drivers they just need to be more fast acting in combat situations or town navigation. I find I need to take over Driver position often because perhaps I know the TANK can pretty much just plow throu most things and get to point A to B. But the AI will attempt to be careful and safe driver, even when its being fired on.

AI needs to go through aggressive driving school in other words.

|: The best test is to set up high traffic on the island with cars going all over (like 1000s cars) and monitor their behavior and record instances of BAD driving. If the AI was in a heavier vehicle they may decide to go offroad at times? or if in tank they may just drive over cars/gates/fences thought NOT drive over friendlies :) .

Its nice to think that the community is a nice cheap way to beta test and bug find but honestly even a small midget team of testers could pick up on most the woes the community has mentioned so far.

Edited July 11, 2009 by PRiME

[zedderzulu 7]

Is it just my defective memory or did the AI drive far better in OFP - I don't remember them being as bad as they are in Arma?

I hate to say it but I think I agree with you entirely. I don't remember having any great issues with driving AI in OFP at all. Things got a bit silly in ArmA, but in ArmA II I can barely rely on the driving AI at all. In fact I cannot have convoys going at all. I put three trucks in a group and have them go somewhere; they seem to space out several hundred metres apart and the trailing units randomly spear off to the right. When there is any sort of road-side object the result is a catastrophe. I have T-90s in a line driving very slowly - they do stay close and relatively in formation, except the following tanks do little pirouettes while the leader's back is turned. I never remember having anything like this happening in OFP.

General driving has improved with the patch. A test I did before and after involved leading a three man squad with a UAZ parked inside a section at the Elektrozavodsk station that was seperated from the main road by a closed gate. I got one soldier to run ahead and open the gates - a nice feature I might add - while I got the other to be the driver. I sat in the front seat and told him to drive through Elektrozavodsk to that second railyard thingy just north of the city. The driver insisted on avoiding the open gates and trying to drive through the wall - I do remember soldiers in OFP not liking gates because they still saw them as objects in the way, but still. Once we had finally made it onto the main road, the driver drove into every single object on the side of the road. After the patch he didn't, although it still took forever to drive through the gate wall. It's just things like that: AI being incapable of navigating around obstacles that block their path, especially when they hit it, reverse seemingly in an attempt to take a different route, then drive back into the object again in exactly the same manner and continue until the end of time, when the all might need is to is reverse just a little further or turn left instead of right.

I'm not trying to sound too bashing. I hugely appreciate BIS going to the effort to support the game after release - not everyone does that at all. I do think ArmAII is a huge improvement over ArmaA and I really do love it to bits - even contrary to some other people I think the flying AI is also much improved. It's just it is hard to see helicopter pilots become so fixated on their targets that they forget to look where they're going and plough into the approaching tree line (it did happen much more often in Arma1 though) or see drivers become terrified at the sight of oncoming traffic despite a really wide road, but still plough into parked cars on the side of that road, and not think "That should not happen." I have to say it, but a dedicated effort in improving the basic driving AI is the biggest factor I hope for in future patches.

[trickster1982 10]

AI drivers need to stop running over members of my squad too! Theres a few occasions while playing user made missions where me & my squad have been walking through a town or whatever,and an AI operated APC,tank or truck has come steamrolling through & flattened members of my squad! So either the AI driver should go round them, or the AI of my squad members needs altering so if a vehicle is trying to get past them,they move out of the way rather than letting themselves be squashed!i shouldnt have to micromanage a basic thing like that!

[NeMeSiS 11]

I think the only reason for less problems with AI drivers in OFP was because of the lower object density. On high density places/islands (=comparable to the avarage place on Chernarus) the AI in OFP seemed to have at least as many problems driving around. But even in default OFP there werent always 100% reliable.

[mr reality 0]

I'n not 100% sure of the name, st david island, something like that, for OFP. I could give a frenchpoint truck two or three waypoints, set it on safe and it would happily drive to its destination.

Yes nemesis, you are probably correct, in that the newer islands have far more objects on them, but my question would be, is it worth it, at the expense of gameplay. I personally would prefer far better AI driving to a more cluttered island.

All i can add to that is, if the devs make more complex islands, then they should make the AI able to drive on them. At the moment its like tits on a bull, useless.

[galzohar 31]

The islands aren't cluttered enough! There just aren't as many rocks and other forms of natural cover to hide behind that I would expect having based on my experience with various RL areas (granted, my RL experience doesn't include the islands in the game).

[NeMeSiS 11]

Yes nemesis, you are probably correct, in that the newer islands have far more objects on them, but my question would be, is it worth it, at the expense of gameplay. I personally would prefer far better AI driving to a more cluttered island.

Objects arent just there for eyecandy, they give alot more immersion and more realistic firefights because there is alot more cover and concealement. Engagement ranges in OFP are alot higher then in ArmA2 because OFP had alot of empty grassy fields while ArmA2 is full of vegetation and other objects.

The 'driverpathfinding' should just be given the same attention as the 'infantrypathfinding' which is pretty impressive. Though i dont know how. Even for human players some places are pretty hard to get in/out of with a big truck and im not exactly sure where it goes wrong with the pathfinding.

They seem to think in a 'line' while their vehicle is much wider then a line so maybe there should be a check for objects all along this line in an area that is slightly wider then the vehicle or something and if an area is too hard to get in/out to they shouldnt even try to get there, but i honestly dont know how that is possible to do.

[galzohar 31]

Arma 2 isn't anywhere near being "full of vegetation and cover". At least not to the point where it shortens the engagement ranges. IRL there's a lot more cover, specifically solid cover, in most areas in the world - be it rocks or just random variation in the landscape. Right now (in non-forest areas) it's mostly grass with and occasional bush and a rare rock, and grass isn't even rendered past a few dozen meters.

[NeMeSiS 11]

Arma 2 isn't anywhere near being "full of vegetation and cover". At least not to the point where it shortens the engagement ranges.

Have we played the same OFP then? :confused:

[galzohar 31]

No, I've played the game called Real Life Combat Training.

[NeMeSiS 11]

No, I've played the game called Real Life Combat Training.

What does that have to do with anything? In my post i said Engagement ranges in OFP are alot higher then in ArmA2

Compared to ArmA2 OFP looked like the moon.

[S!fkaIaC 10]

Gents, I can f*** up my thread alone :cool:

Anything else to AI pathfinding and pathfinding in wheeled vehicles in special?

[galzohar 31]

What does that have to do with anything? In my post i said Engagement ranges in OFP are alot higher then in ArmA2

Compared to ArmA2 OFP looked like the moon.

My point is that while it might be better, it's still way off compared to RL. There's nowhere near the amount of natural cover you could find IRL, and it's not even possible to add some objects via the editor without having it look incredibly unrealistic, and that is if you managed to get past the clipping issues.