Anyone else a little shocked by the AI?

[CrazyAviator 10]

Seems Ive been reading alot of threads in and around the troubleshoot forum saying the AI is intact and working well after the 1.02 patch. I didnt play much on 1.01 but with 1.02 I can hardly agree. After playing through the first few missions all Ive seen is poor pathfinding, AI running all around before mounting, and stuff like this...

...My CO in Mission 2 went prone after getting injured (then healed) and never got back up, forcing me to restart. Second time an allied HMV got stuck on the train tracks before finally running me and my whole crew over in a fit of rage...

I usually end up babying my squad through hostile areas because they seem to enjoy running up right next to chedaki infantry and getting shot.

Is it just me or do these AI need a revamp?

[Eagle911 10]

AI can either be

A) Incredibly l33t hackorz

B) Stupid as a rock

C) Not working at all

[Heatseeker 0]

The first problem indicates a possible bug with the first aid module, wich i dont like or use.

The second problem indicates a possible colision detection bug with the vehicle or maybe the train tracks, i honestly dont know.

My a.i. is working quite well, provided i use them correctly, formation, stance, watch direction, etc, i like the improvements alot and i think the a.i. is fine.

[Thirdup 0]

I think the issues are very "mission dependent".

In Donimation for example, my AI squad will vary depending totally on what stage an objective is currently situated. If it's early on I will go in heavy with AT and a few AA. Once we've eliminated enemy armor, I'll place snipers as spotters while I move in with a spec-ops team and blow the tower. Then I re-fit with a house-to-house team and clean up.

If the mission allows you to change up your squad, great things can happen (especially if you've gotten good at "herding cats" and making good use of all the formations and commands).

ymmv

[weegee_101 0]

I think the issues are very "mission dependent".

Yup. In Superpowers I often see the AI just stop dead in their tracks after I give them an order. Its incredibly frustrating, and I have to order them somewhere else and THEN back to where I want them for them to go.

[Kramxel 10]

From what I've seen so far... early stages... the AI is pretty good!

It's the scripting that is often at fault!

[Drozdov 0]

I find only the driving to be shockingly bad. It really is bad, they think absolutely nothing of running you or everyone else over. The number of times I had to revert during the Badlands mission because salvage trucks kept running over Razor team is not funny. Their pathfinding also sucks, especially when you want them to go into a forest. They just won't do it, even though there's plenty of space between the trees and the vehicle is heavy enough to smash through them without damage anyway.

The rest isn't that great, but it's at least better than ArmA 1. The main problem with the AI is their love of Engage at Will mode, which means AI commanders always send individual soldiers on unsupported kamikaze attacks.

[Lauxman 10]

Seems Ive been reading alot of threads in and around the troubleshoot forum saying the AI is intact and working well after the 1.02 patch. I didnt play much on 1.01 but with 1.02 I can hardly agree. After playing through the first few missions all Ive seen is poor pathfinding, AI running all around before mounting, and stuff like this...

I usually end up babying my squad through hostile areas because they seem to enjoy running up right next to chedaki infantry and getting shot.

Is it just me or do these AI need a revamp?

Your problem is that you are playing the stock campaign.

Don't judge the AI until you see how they perform in the editor. They can be pretty damn lethal, using good movement and cover under fire. (Make sure you use the "Combat" behavior setting)

And then turn Super AI on.

[Uranium-235 10]

I've had a lot of problems with teammate AI getting lost in the SP campaign.

In fact, Razor Two, the marksman guy, I can practically RELY on getting lost in the woods while the other two keep up fine.

Razor Three, Rodriguez or whatever, is an idiot when it comes to vehicles.

The fourth guy is the only one who's yet to have a problem :)

[killerwhale 1]

Flying AI planes are the most stupid... they charge at the enemy like 2 bulls fighting. and sometimes they fly like a butterfly hovering at very low alt/speed and it wont be long before they crash at trees or are shot down. I'm disappointed with flying AI.

[rübe 127]

The main problem with the AI is their love of Engage at Will mode, which means AI commanders always send individual soldiers on unsupported kamikaze attacks.

It's called flanking. An ai-commander will often send those guys alone to flank you, IF you were detected and you don't move. It happens, that he will send more guys to flank you, though serially and not in teams.

The squadleader-AI-layer should really be reworked to operate mainly with fireteams (which then would flank you) and not with single units (only as a last resort or for specific tasks).

IMHO this is the big flaw with the AI at the moment: there are simply too less intelligent and hierarchical AI-layers, thinking in bigger pictures/more abstracted on each step upwards.

In computer science chess is probably the most popular example in AI. And guess what? You won't get anywhere if every unit think's for itself (or if one leader-unit commands all single units, which is basically the same). Of course not. We are playing a greater/bigger game than horse vs. tower. Also the bruteforce-approach is a dead end, since there are simply too many possibilities. In chess they programm the AI to `think` in agglomerations and even more layers. And the result is extremly good.

Sure, chess may seem hell of simple compared to a game like Arma. Thus it's even more important to have many abstracted AI-Layers, thinking each time upwards in a bigger picture.

And unit- to group-layer? Thats a step too big, there apparently needs to be a mid-layer: the fireteams.

Now we have the HighCommand-Module, but it really (and unfortunately) has nothing to do with this at the moment. It's not an AI-layer integrated above the group-layer. It's just an interface module(!) - a half-baked one. :/

What we would need is AI-layers building on top of each other up to the side-layer. And each AI-layers should care for bigger objectives, reaching them with what they have beneath them.

Too bad this (except maybe micro-ai) didn't really evolve much since ofp.

[CrazyAviator 10]

Flying AI planes are the most stupid... they charge at the enemy like 2 bulls fighting. and sometimes they fly like a butterfly hovering at very low alt/speed and it wont be long before they crash at trees or are shot down. I'm disappointed with flying AI.

x2 on this point. I just had the Venom plunge into the tree line with my whole crew aboard. :rolleyes: REVERT

[LJF 0]

In my opinion the ArmA2 AI is the greatest I've ever seen, and at the some points, some of the worst. They can manage things that make the hair on the back of your neck stick up, behaving just like actual players, of course they are way too slow (as a squad - moving) and sometimes just ... get stuck or do something incredibly stupid.

But yeah, set custom difficulty to 1,1,1,1 (all AI options on hardest) and turn on Super AI, you'll see some pretty nice results :)

Edited July 29, 2009 by LJF