Squad Control

[MBot 0]

What are your tips to efficiently control your AI squad? I am not talking about tactics but how you actually control them with the UI. What are the most efficient combinations of combat mode and stance in various situations? Do you use the color teams or do you control them individually? What are the finesses of the “engage†and “engage at will†commands? I think you get the idea, tell us a bit about how you play as a squad leader.

Some observations I made:

In the default “copy my stance†mode the AI does not seem to run ducked when the player does, instead they run upright. It would be nice if they copied also this behavior. I also think that your squad should only copy your stance when in formation with you. If you send them off as a team, they should choose their own stance. For example when I order a fire team to hold position while I lead the other on the flank, the supporting team should figure out themselves to go prone, even if I am running. Of course I could order them to go prone directly but if you have to micromanage the stance of your whole team (don’t forget to order them to get up again later), the game becomes a micromanaging nightmare.

I am still a bit unsure when to use ‘aware’ and when ‘danger’ modes when in combat. It is really nice how they seek cover under ‘danger’ but they do very short bounds (in bounding over watch) in open terrain. In urban terrain it seems to work ok but in the field the bounds look very short (perhaps 10-20 meters). This means a group generally spends a lot of time by going prone, standing up and turning around, and hangs around on the same spot doing maneuvering and fine tuning. They don’t advance with any useful speed and make themselves targets. The combat mode ‘aware’ is quicker but also less safe. It would be nice if under ‘danger’ they would make longer bounds, sprinting with maximum speed to the next cover or if none is available in useful distance, bound after perhaps 100 m (1/3 of engagement distances of the covering weapons sounds reasonable). What would be the RL specs here? Also wouldn’t the bounding over watch be done by teams rather than by individuals like in game (looks often a bit chaotic)?

Generally speaking I am a bit disappointed that the squad control UI is still the same as in OFP. In my opinion it is in urgent need for a complete re-design. The game expects you to define your standard fire teams at the start of each mission instead of coming with pre-grouped fire teams. Commanding whole teams is rather clumsy and slow. The game itself and the manual does not explain many of the available control options at all and some only barely. Generally the UI is quite awkward and unintuitive. Let’s hope this central game play element gets a re-design at some point.

[andersson 285]

I havent played with AI in my squad in arma1, but I did in OFP and then I used VAC (voice activated command). That is a program that makes keypress combinations from your voice. It made the somewhat clunky system fluent and intuitive.

I also used alot of fireteams to send one ahead as pointman and have the medic behind us and so on. "Team green, move forward", "team green, fall back" ;)

[mr_centipede 31]

One solution that I can think of right now is mission makers should use high command module. you (the player) as the commander, and create two or three 4 man team and sync them with high command subordinate. now you have a proper squad control.

as for vanilla, from your observation:

danger is good in town (CQB)

aware is for long range engagement

from my personal experience playing ARMA 1:

engage at will is usefull in town (CQB) because of the nature of AI trying to keep formation.

[maddogx 13]

When crossing long distances on foot, definitely set the AI to aware instead of "danger". Otherwise they go into uber-tactical-cover-all-angles-bounding-overwatch mode and take ages to get anywhere. When in a hostile area, the danger/combat behaviour is obviously more sensible, but you should make sure not to happily run ahead too fast, or they won't be able to keep up. I usually order my AI to move to a certain place about 20-50m ahead, then I move with them and try to cover any angles they've missed.

[whisper 0]

Yup, combat mode is for when you're sure about ennemy presence close, the AI are really slow in this mode, and if your objective is timed, more often than not they can screw it up by going that slow.

Seeing how efficient they are now, I don't hesitate anymore to send 2 of them in advance of the group all the time ("Advance" order, usually twice, only once in urban area).

Strangely enough, the "stealth" mode seems a bit faster in movement than "danger" mode.

I've yet to encounter a situation where I have time enough to ask my MG to lay suppressive fire explicitely :(

1 bit OT remark : don't stay too near area where you just ask for artillery fire. 100m is obviously not enough! :D

[MBot 0]

Some good advice there already.

When crossing long distances on foot, definitely set the AI to aware instead of "danger". Otherwise they go into uber-tactical-cover-all-angles-bounding-overwatch mode and take ages to get anywhere. When in a hostile area, the danger/combat behaviour is obviously more sensible, but you should make sure not to happily run ahead too fast, or they won't be able to keep up.

The problem I have in ‘danger’ mode when in combat is that there are still quick movements needed, combined with the ability to take cover where available. Sending one team to flank when under ‘danger’ means they wont make much progress when swift movement is needed. Sending them under ‘aware’ means they wont take cover at their destination or select a more covered route. How do you guys do manauvering when already in combat?

[whisper 0]

I let them do, because this time in A2, they do much less stupid things, no need for micro-managing all the time

[dreday 1]

One solution that I can think of right now is mission makers should use high command module. you (the player) as the commander, and create two or three 4 man team and sync them with high command subordinate. now you have a proper squad control.

It has already been pointed out on several occasions before that the Hight Command module is very limited and does not allow for proper control of the teams. Moreover, from my personal observations; it is quite buggy and is more of a novelty than a functional command tool.

Peace,

DreDay

[maddogx 13]

It has already been pointed out on several occasions before that the Hight Command module is very limited and does not allow for proper control of the teams. Moreover, from my personal observations; it is quite buggy and is more of a novelty than a functional command tool.

Peace,

DreDay

Would you care to elaborate? How is it limited and what kind of bugs are there? I've been trying it out recently and can't really complain about the functionality. Squads under my command do as they are told, I can change waypoint parameters like speed, combat mode etc. and it's even possible to chain waypoints.

From what I can tell, the HC system works very well so far. :)

Here's a short video I made of the HC mode in action:

. It's quite short because I was stupid enough to get shot, but I plan to make more.

[dreday 1]

Would you care to elaborate? How is it limited and what kind of bugs are there? I've been trying it out recently and can't really complain about the functionality. Squads under my command do as they are told, I can change waypoint parameters like speed, combat mode etc. and it's even possible to chain waypoints.

From what I can tell, the HC system works very well so far. :)

Here's a short video I made of the HC mode in action:

. It's quite short because I was stupid enough to get shot, but I plan to make more.

With pleasure... There is some key command functionality features that are missing from the High command systems. For starters, there is no option to board another team's vehicles. In fact there is no option to load/unload into their own vehicles. A lot of the times they will reach their objective and just sit in their vehicles until they are picked off by an RPG or a tank round. There are no options to split or reassign the subordinates. No option to make them face any particular direction. No option to make them go into a building. Their target show up as "T0", "T1", etc in the target menu.

On top of that, I have noticed that a lot of the times you loose command of your subordinates during actual combat. They are still there, but their command menu is inaccessible and they simply sit in one spot without doing anything. Sure this type of thing might happen in RL as well, but I seriously doubt that this is a simulated effect....

So in a nutshell, the command system offers a ton of potential; but it would need some serious polish before it could come to its full fruition.

Peace,

DreDay