ARMA II Beta Builds Released: Latest version/build: 1.04.6xxxx

[nomdeplume 0]

Sarge;1516815']actually the latest beta download on that site is corrupt.

As has been noticed' date=' BIS upload directly to the beta directory and their beta patch lists the files while they're being uploaded. This makes writing an automatic mirror script much more exciting! I've improved the handling a bit to provide more obvious feedback via the directory listing. Mostly: don't download a .zip until it has a ".tested" file next to it. If that file exists, it means it's passed an unzip -t test and is therefore almost certainly complete/working. If it doesn't exist, then it may still be downloading the file.

@BIS - feel free to add a link to http://mirror.quex.org/arma/beta/ on the beta page if you want to offload some bandwidth.

Re: latest beta, sadly I've not had much time to test it (actually I haven't had any time to test the latest, latest beta). But I did set up a little scenario with 61362 to test the choppers, and it truly was a joy to behold. Three OPFOR infantry groups, and a UH1Y flying around... it hit all three groups with rockets, and the door gunners engaged well... and it didn't crash into anything! Quite a few times it was heading for trees that I'm pretty sure it would've previously gone right into, and it avoided them nicely. I want to do more testing, but I'm cautiously optimistic (which is to say, I'm so happy I could cry). Thanks BIS!

Edited December 17, 2009 by some kind of guy

[maturin 12]

Also another problem with a.i in danger mode is when a enemy plane starts flying above they just stand still or lay on their stomachs spamming go i'll cover... its really hard to get them to follow waypoints when enemy planes are attacking...

Please take this behavior seriously. The game can become unplayable because of it.

[Bouben 3]

Also another problem with a.i in danger mode is when a enemy plane starts flying above they just stand still or lay on their stomachs spamming go i'll cover... its really hard to get them to follow waypoints when enemy planes are attacking...

+1 Similar problem that I have reported!

[mattxr 9]

Someone was asking about the hold fire not working but as i said it doesnt exactly work like that...

• No Change - The group will continue under it's existing combat mode.
  
• Never Fire - The leader will order the group to hold fire and disengage (CombatMode "Blue"). The group will never fire under any circumstances.
  
• Hold Fire - The leader will order the group to hold fire and disengage (CombatMode "Green"). Individual units will open fire on any enemy units that are both aware of their individual presence and can harm them.
  
• Hold Fire, Engage At Will - The leader will order the group to hold fire and engage enemy units at will (CombatMode "White"). Individual units will move into a position from which they could shoot at the enemy, but will only open fire on an enemy unit that becomes aware of their presence and can harm them.
  
• Open Fire - This is the default Combat Mode. Units will fire upon any suitable target in range, while staying in formation (CombatMode "Yellow"). The group leader may order individual units to engage targets.
  
• Open Fire, Engage At Will - The leader will order his units to fire upon any suitable target in range, and move to engage at will (CombatMode "Red"). Units may move out of formation in order to find suitable firing positions on known targets.
  

[Bouben 3]

please take this behavior seriously. The game can become unplayable because of it.

+10000

[nomdeplume 0]

Someone was asking about the hold fire not working but as i said it doesnt exactly work like that...

• Hold Fire - The leader will order the group to hold fire and disengage (CombatMode "Green"). Individual units will open fire on any enemy units that are both aware of their individual presence and can harm them.
  

The issue is that the AI sometimes decides an enemy is a threat when it isn't. I'm not sure how the AI decides whether another AI knows about it -- i.e. if it uses omniscient knowledge of the game state, or tries to "guess".

It can frequently occur that distant enemies will cause one of your guys (usually only one of them - often #2 for some reason) to go out of "hold fire" mode (the icon in the unit bar changes to remove the red line through it) even though the enemy is quite distant, and often is NOT reacting to your presence at all (suggesting that, if it does know about your guy, it may not yet have worked out it's an enemy). Often, your guy doesn't even start shooting because the enemy is too distant or otherwise not a good target.

This means the player has to keep re-ordering men to hold fire mode, which is annoying.

A related issue is that sometimes your "hold fire" guys will start engaging even though they're not actually in imminent danger -- in cases like this, it would be good to have a "stronger" hold fire mode where you trade increased risk for increased chance of getting closer to the target before giving away your position. Currently, units in "hold fire" mode are a bit twitchy. Not so bad if you're patrolling, but annoying if you're trying to set up a close ambush or sneak past enemies.

Also note that you can't order "never fire" mode within the game, so that's not an option for normal gameplay. It's also very unlikely you'd ever want your guys to never fire, but a "hold fire until fired upon" mode would be nice.

[Alex72 1]

HOLD FIRE has for some reason ALWAYS worked for me. However it has to be issued when there is no eAI in sight. If im behind a hill and have eAI behind it - i issue HOLD FIRE and can then go up on the hill without my AI shooting. They will say "EYES ON TARGET!", "READY TO FIRE!" etc etc, but they wont shoot - UNLESS they get shot at.

I do it everytime and it always works flawlessly. Ofcourse you cant or even shouldnt tell them to hold fire when they are targeted for death by the eAI. That just seems pretty stupid. :)

[nkenny 1057]

Hold Fire and Stealth

I'm thinking that most of the problems with Hold Fire lay with the 'Bounding Overwatch' that is often forced with Stealth and Danger modes. (used to be initiated by going PRONE too)

The AI will often senselessly navigate and SPRINT to forward pieces of cover. You might not see it happen, but the AI still compromises himself. Thereby resulting in premature firefights. :P

Stealth mode REALLY needs to affect the MOVEMENT SPEED of the AI.

The stance chosen REALLY needs to be chosen based on distance to enemy.

-k

[teaboy 11]

Yes! They are INCREDIBLY SLOW. Even if you force them into standing or crouched position. They are absolutely unable to catch up with you.

EDIT: for example now, my medic is waiting over THREE maybe FOUR REAL MINUTES to heal his mate 30 cm from him. He's actually looking like frozen.

EDIT2: Ok, medic was waiting for 7 or 8 minutes and has taken NO ACTION.

ive found that ordering them to return to formation i.e select units press 1 and then 1 again. they well leave combat mode and catch up to you just like they used too.

[NoRailgunner 0]

About fire commands:

link #1 Marine Rifle Squad - Chapter II - Section V

link #2 Army - Field Manual 17-12-8 Chapter 5

link #3 Combat Techniques of fire

Imho BIS should rework communication (oral speech of AI) and include proper reports & feedback from AI to the leader (human player).

I suggest to use

-> distances in meters

-> compass direction for open terrain and as overall general usage,

-> clock direction for vehicles,

-> general direction (eg left front, front, right front, left flank, right flank, left rear, rear, right rear, far, behind, close) for CQB and if all of the team/group watch the same direction.

Better if the AI alert+warn the player(s) about detection and high threats before open fire & engaging contacts. Breaking cease fire or silence/stealth should be only the case if there is no chance to alert and warn the team. This should be a rare exception not the rule.

Alex72 there wouldnt be any annoyance if the contact reports where made more military and less gamey. I guess specop missions like long range interdiction or patrols arent your cup of tea? ;)

[EricM 0]

I truely believe that optimal contact reports in game should be world-centric /compass-based (North/South...) and in meters for anything further than 50 or 100m and player-centic and direction-based (left/right) when under 50-100m. (eg : Left is the players' left !)...

[santafee 10]

Yea, the spotting of enemys...We´l never find out why they changed it from Arma I in such a bad working way. Il hope we get some non robotic voice overs and working spotting, which makes sense, with one of the next patches!

[Bouben 3]

ive found that ordering them to return to formation i.e select units press 1 and then 1 again. they well leave combat mode and catch up to you just like they used too.

No, this is not working. I've tried everything. I am not playing for first few days. This is simply a bug.

[whisper 0]

No, this is not working. I've tried everything. I am not playing for first few days. This is simply a bug.

It's a beta meant to test. Not something you should take so serious that you stop playing and go on ranting about state of the game because of it.

Veeeery simple solution : roll back to a beta that had not this issue.

continue tests on latest builds (about the aspects of the game you're accustomed to, ie IA behavior) and report bugs, but please, spare the "beta is bad", "game is not playable" comments, it's not helping, and you can get around that very easily. simply roll back to your favorite beta version after tests on latest, for true playing sessions

[jw custom 56]

Been playing a little with latest beta(61450) and i must say AI is starting work properly again. Selecting units and pressing 1-1 as suggested works really well to get your AI away from the line of fire, so great work there BIS :cool:

Maybe you could fix the problem with AI using AT weapons on footsoldiers(only seen it with SMAW though) which is annoying when you later on append on the AT weapon.

Then there's the path finding which has improved A LOT and that is awesome but specially in cities it could still use some improvement :)

[maturin 12]

Helicopters still waste half their rockets (Hydras, S-5s, etc) walking their rounds onto the target. They put the crosshair on the enemy and fire huge numbers of rockets that impact up to a hundred meters short. And they only use them in steep attack runs, so you could practically hit one with a baseball by the time it opens fire.

[teaboy 11]

No, this is not working. I've tried everything. I am not playing for first few days. This is simply a bug.

It does work just like jw customs post states a couple of posts below yours. However it wont work in open areas when the AI is firing or under fire as like real life soldiers, their not going to get up and run when under a hail of bullets. neither will they get up when they are engaging the enemy or have a true line of sight of an enemy relatively close, who is aware of their location making it too dangerous to move. To get up and run in those circumstances is suicide. therefore theres the need to take out such threats prior to retreating or advancing in the open at pace. It works better in towns where there is lots of cover as the chances of both your men and the enemy having a clear line of sight on each other is dramatically less in towns with buildings, walls and sheds etc then it is in open areas, therefore making it safer to move around in towns.

[Bouben 3]

Guys, here was one angry text about your fallacy.

Now I discovered, that I had accidentally the Zeus AI mod running. I turned it off and it really works. Not perfectly but much much better. I am really sorry for diffusion of wrong information here.

Please, accept my apologies. I was desperate and nervous about it, because even delta and file formations were not helping at all.

Thanks

Edited December 17, 2009 by Bouben

[jw custom 56]

Nice try. But what you say is definetely not true. AI is stucked even if they DO NOT SEE AN ENEMY. It is enough for them to get under fire just once and there you go - they're slow, not listening to your orders till the last enemy soldier is dead. No matter where they are.

I have just been playing and was a few times under heavy fire in the open and chose to retreat. I started to run towards some buildings aprox. 100m away, pressed space-1-1 to make them return to formation which they did even though bullets were flying over our heads. We all survived and were ready to fight after some medial attention :)

Wether this was pure luck it worked fine atleast 2 times i don't know but i'll test more tomorrow.

EDIT:

I see you got it working :)

[Bouben 3]

I have just been playing and was a few times under heavy fire in the open and chose to retreat. I started to run towards some buildings aprox. 100m away, pressed space-1-1 to make them return to formation which they did even though bullets were flying over our heads. We all survived and were ready to fight after some medial attention :)

Wether this was pure luck it worked fine atleast 2 times i don't know but i'll test more tomorrow.

EDIT:

I see you got it working :)

Yes :(:rolleyes:

[maturin 12]

Guys, here was one angry text about your fallacy.

Now I discovered, that I had accidentally the Zeus AI mod running. I turned it off and it really works. Not perfectly but much much better. I am really sorry for diffusion of wrong information here.

Please, accept my apologies. I was desperate and nervous about it, because even delta and file formations were not helping at all.

Thanks

For the record, I'm not running Zeus AI (Just Vopsounds) and I get this problem.

[Bouben 3]

For the record, I'm not running Zeus AI (Just Vopsounds) and I get this problem.

What a situation...

[teaboy 11]

For the record, I'm not running Zeus AI (Just Vopsounds) and I get this problem.

the best way to test beta patches is not to have any mods running. remember, beta patches are developed to work with the stock version of the game not the moded versions.

And bouben am glad to see you managed to get the AI working now, and i hope it makes the came alot better and more immersive for you.

[Bouben 3]

the best way to test beta patches is not to have any mods running. remember, beta patches are developed to work with the stock version of the game not the moded versions.

And bouben am glad to see you managed to get the AI working now, and i hope it makes the came alot better and more immersive for you.

Well, don't say "hop!" till you jump over! I will give it more testing and share my experiences with you.

Good night :)

[maturin 12]

the best way to test beta patches is not to have any mods running. remember, beta patches are developed to work with the stock version of the game not the moded versions.

And bouben am glad to see you managed to get the AI working now, and i hope it makes the came alot better and more immersive for you.

If Vopsound affects AI to such an extent, then they have a lot of work to do. But I rather think BI does instead.