Ai and Driving - curious

[rgallant 10]

Has anyone else noticed the AI seems to drive better if you are not in the vehicle. I was doing an escort mission and could not find a big enough vehicle for 5. So I put my squad in a car and took a pickup myself.

I would drive ahead then direct them to drive to that point. In 10 minutes of driving they stayed on the road and did not hit a single thing. I have tried this 3 times now always the same result. Put them in as my driver in anything and they hit everything and have problems with the simplest of turns.

[Big Dawg KS 6]

Has anyone else noticed the AI seems to drive better if you are not in the vehicle.

You mean it's even worse if the player is in the vehicle? :j:

[BeerHunter 0]

I would drive ahead then direct them to drive to that point

I've noticed that too-if you give the AI directions they usually follow them without hesitation (which is more than what can be said for some of the human players online :p).

You do have to tend to "baby-sit" the AI quit a bit but once they get to the designated area they react quit well to their surroundings.

Think what a lot of players are forgetting is that THEY are (in most cases) the COMMANDER and are expected to give orders/direction to their subordinates (as in real life) rather than charging ahead expecting the AI to keep up with them. Even online unless you communicate your intentions to the rest of the squad they are going to get lost and confused as well.

[zeep 3]

Maybe the AI just gets embarrased and unsure of themselves when you are in the car with them. The intimidation is making them them all shaky and clumsy. :P

[rgallant 10]

Yup that is it, it also explains why my sniper control freak feels the need to be the driver in sedans. He simply will not get into a car unless he can drive. But in the grand scheme of things it is not too bad. I mostly play single player, so the AI bugs are annoying but not the end of the world.

[DrGonzo 10]

I tried to make a mission where I played as some militant guy trying to ambush a Russian convoy.

The piss-poor AI driving skills pretty much made the level unplayable. I mean, they'd drive 20 feet, then would nearly drive straight into an adjacent building, then they'd have to reverse. It was basically just this same process over and over again.

In a word, Pish.

[NeMeSiS 11]

I usually give them a waypoint quite far away and do not try to force them a specific route or location. They usually take a route they are able to do and rarely get stuck this way.

[-RIP- Luhgnut 10]

Has anyone else noticed the AI seems to drive better if you are not in the vehicle. I was doing an escort mission and could not find a big enough vehicle for 5. So I put my squad in a car and took a pickup myself.

I would drive ahead then direct them to drive to that point. In 10 minutes of driving they stayed on the road and did not hit a single thing. I have tried this 3 times now always the same result. Put them in as my driver in anything and they hit everything and have problems with the simplest of turns.

Yes, I've noticed the same thing.

Basically, I'm very disappointed with Squad AI in general. Nothing surprises me anymore. Also notice they'll bail out of a burning tank, or a car that's taken damage if you're not in it? But if you are, you have to tell them to bail out or they explode.

Edited August 11, 2009 by [RIP] Luhgnut

[Flaxpants 10]

Interesting observation - I have made a similair one myself. I have noticed that if you are in the vehicle, the ai seems to drive better if you are in first person mode than in third person. hey ho.

Generally I like to imagine that the vehicle is being driven my my grandmother. This way I am never disappointed.

[Herr_kalashnikov 10]

ur grandmothers drivingskills > AI :don2:

[Flaxpants 10]

Not so sure about that, she passed away years ago, God rest her soul.

[KJT 0]

Could it be that after 1.02 patch when AI is driving on its own there is no collision detection for them - meaning AI cheats by driving through parked vehicles at road side etc. which helps a lot (they just don't need to care about them). If player is in the car then AI tries to avoid collisions (which usually means crawling speed and/or lots of collisions). Don't know if this only happens if player can't see the AI driving. Should be easy to test though. There were some AI driving "optimizations" in that patch? And they fixed the large truck turning radius.

Once I was testing AI driving with a truck in a town (with civilian modules) and when I was in the truck it always took several minutes, but when AI was driving alone (and I was waiting at the destination) it only took 30 secs.

-KJT-

[-RIP- Luhgnut 10]

I've noticed also that the vehicle will actually try to avoid trees and so forth, once it get's screwed up. It will do something totally stupid, like cut across a field to the joining road, but then have to navigate around trees, and walls etc. It would have been faster to go to the intersection in town, and make your turn, but they'll shortcut and get into trouble.

Yesterday I had two UAV's manned and told both drivers to go to a location. We started out nearly side by side. The AI only car (the other one) got to the location several minutes before my driver got us there.

As far as no collision detection. I haven't seen an AI manned vehicle drive through another one. Even watching them with binocs driving around in town, I don't see them drive through.

[b0x0x 10]

Safe/Aware/Combat/Stealth command state (and related commands like 'advance' or 'danger') will radically change how the AI responds to commands. There are of course bugs, but a good number of weird issues seen in the ai (demolition derby driving, lagging far behind, trying to form up at the wrong time etc) seem to be the AI just following the command it has been given according to its behaviour state in a very literal way. So:

1) assign everyone in the same vehicle to the same team - this stops 'get back in formation' weirdness and helps the AI deal with dispersed groups a lot better.

2) when moving, command the driver / commander of the vehicle, not the whole group or whole crew. pay attention to who is in 'safe' mode and who is set to scan/engage targets. Hold fire, safe mode (select 3-2, select 7-4) will make drivers drive less aggressively, hold the road better and give you a chance to give orders when it comes under fire rather than going beserk.

3) AI seems to treat objects/markers/map items etc as nodes, and if there are lots of reference points, or very few reference points, it can have trouble navigating, especially if it's set to look for and use cover ('combat' or 'stealth' modes). the occasional 'aware' (7-3) and 'stand up' (7-6) command do wonders to get them out of a sulk or a corner.

4) if your AIs seem to hate getting in vehicles, try using the command mode list (select unit, 4, vehicle) rather than the context menu + middle click. If the driver slot is free when you give the order to board, the AI will assume you want one of them to be the driver and freak out when you board and take the slot they wanted - either specifically tell them to get in back via the '4' menu, or get in as the position you want first, then tell them to board.

[ArmedAnarkie 0]

Depend on distance between each vehicle, it may hit and infinitely hit building just like a female drivers. Very annoying. The vehicles must be well-placed with at least a vehicle size distance.

[Eremitt 10]

I love how the AI use the vehicle to plow through a group of friendly soldiers or civilians.

It was an absolute massacre when Number 2 "the sniper" was told to back out of Manhattan in the bmp. I doubt an airstrike would have done that much damage.

[Taurus 20]

If you haven't already.

Vote on this CIT:

http://dev-heaven.net/issues/show/1845

So maybe one day the AI can drive vehicles both alone and in columns...