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

[nomdeplume 0]

Why does the installer keep telling me that the beta patch cannot be uninstalled? All I have to do is delete the modfolder and the initiation line from the shortcut.

For the same reason it says to please be patient as it's installing "very large data" and when you run the beta patch uninstaller it says it's uninstalled beta version 1.03 - they haven't bothered to update the installer text messages for the betas. Probably because they might forget to put them back when they release the official patch. ;)

The final patches don't have an uninstall mechanism, and are quite large and take a while to install.

[ryan80 10]

is it going to reach 1.04.99999 before it goes to the next main 1.05 version?

[fabrizio_t 58]

60899 Soft formations now a little bit "harder" to fasten the group progress

60898 Fixed: Rev. 60821 has broken AI helis.

Thx, i still prefer softer formations for AI, wondering if is it possible to have "harder" formations applied to Player-led groups only?

[nomdeplume 0]

Fixed-wing AI aircraft which have flyInHeight set don't complete their MOVE waypoints. They will pass over it without activating it, then continually circle it.

This was working in build 60819 - the planes would complete the waypoint after flying over it, regardless of their altitude.

In build 60890 the problem has appeared and remains in 60899. Helicopters don't exhibit this behaviour, i.e. they complete waypoints regardless of their flyInHeight.

Reproduction steps:

1. Load mission editor with a blank map, Utes is fine.
   
2. Add a player character somewhere.
   
3. Add an AI-controlled fixed-wing aircraft (tested with: A-10, both harriers, F-35, Osprey, Su-25, Su-34).
   
4. In the aircraft init field, put:

   vehicle this flyInHeight 500 ; this switchCamera "Internal"

   
   

5. Add a move waypoint some distance away.
   
6. Preview the mission.
   

Alternatively, add a two-seater like the Su-34 and set yourself as the gunner so you can watch the AI fly; you'll still need the flyInHeight in the init, but not the switchCamera.

Also it may just be my imagination, but I think the fixed-wingers without flyInHeight set are flying lower than usual in order to complete the waypoint. If it's not my imagination, this is almost certainly related.

Result:

The aircraft will fly towards the waypoint, and upon reaching it, will start circling back. This will continue possibly forever, or possibly until the aircraft happens to be flying lower (unverified speculation).

Desired result:

Aircraft should complete waypoints regardless of their altitude, i.e. distance from waypoint should be done in 2D with no regard for height.

Repro mission:

FlyInHeightTest.utes.7z (856 bytes)

Although it's probably faster to create the mission yourself than to download and extract it...

Edited December 5, 2009 by some kind of guy

[cm. 10]

is it going to reach 1.04.99999 before it goes to the next main 1.05 version?

lol no it's not, they will just release the new patch when they are ready.

[Alex72 1]

Getting a lot of low textures in these latest betas. I believe its ticketed over at DH. Or at least the M240 Nests as i shown in this thread.

So even when im fairly close to some buildings they have very (lowest) textures, and when i zoom they get to higher textures, but then i zoom out and back in and it wont change to high textures again.

Right. Time to test the very latest beta. :)

EDIT:

Another problem with AI going COMBAT when fired upon is that medics wont heal you. I move behind cover and tell my AI to come heal me - as im dying slowly - but he wont listen.

Edited December 5, 2009 by Alex72

[fabrizio_t 58]

Sorry guys, i had a chance to test build 60896, after skipping some previous builds.

I have some criticism here.

Talking about AI led groups i think build 60588 was way better than latest beta.

Group movement was more fluid, mutual covering was better.

I think that build was the best i was able to check out.

I see problems with latest build, i have the strong impression something was overdone.

1) There is a lot of "micro" movement of units, for example they insist in going out of good cover to align to some abstract formation position just some meters away.

2) Also it seems the "leash" linking leader to its units is too short: i am seeing a lot of very short bounds by both leaders and units.

3) Leaders (as well as units) do strange things: they go forward, fall back to cover, then move forward again and so on, without any real reason.

All this did not happened with build 60588 ...

Quoting myself to resume.

I'm testing interim builds, back on 60588 tracks.

Here i am testing AI-Led groups combat capabilities.

60896

1) Lot of micro-movements, ineffective bounding overwatch.

2) strange units movements, in and out of cover + strange path taken by leaders.

60890

1) Less Micro-movements, bounding overwatch works better.

2) still strange units movements, in and out of cover + strange path taken by leaders.

60819

1) Almost no micro-movements, bounding overwatch fine. I like this kind of "relaxed" formation for AI better than 60890 and over.

2) leaders/units movement seemengly almost fine, predictable leaders path.

EDIT:

60803

1) As above, no micro-movements, bounding overwatch fine.

2) leaders/units movement seemengly almost fine predictable leaders path.

So my biggest gripe is with 60890 and over, routine keeping group tight and in formation (useful for player led group) is rendering AI-led groups less combat effective compared to say 60819.

Units step out of cover for little or no reason.

I'd like to see this tightening routine applied only to player-led groups, if possible.

Edited December 5, 2009 by fabrizio_T
More tests done!

[Alex72 1]

Really weird thing noticed in latest build.

Told my AI medic to HEAL TEAM LEADER (im the only one). AI medic starts running really far away and im following him to see where hes going. After some 300 meters of running he kills an eAI and then stops - like he's done his job. Checking the ACTION menu of my AI medic again and the HEAL TEAM LEADER is gone... Talk about weird huh.

Seems to be a bit iffy with medics in the latest builds. At least to my experience. No AI addons used when testing this. I will do more research and try to get something more substantial. Just giving some quick observation in here to see if others experienced it too or if its just me.

EDIT:

Another situation that is not so good with the AUTO-COMBAT mode when attacked is when you get overwhelmed by eAI. Before i could retreat and my AI followed me. Now they go into COMBAT mode and stay. They stay in a situation where we cannot win because there is too much eAI.

Auto COMBAT mode sounds great, and it is in certain (correct) situations. But many situations it does more harm than good.

Edited December 5, 2009 by Alex72

[Punisher5555 0]

Animals and people are still stuck in place. They don't move.

[fabrizio_t 58]

Tried build 60899, but like in 60896 and 60890 AI groups lack combat effectiveness.

I saw many units running around in opposite directions to find and/or swap cover, while trying to keep up with leader (who was moving in a very unpredictable way).

The more time units spend moving this way, the more vulnerable they are.

They're constantly busy in getting to the optimal formation spot and nobody cares about covering others for more than a few seconds. Less suppressive fire too.

With build 60588 my 100% skill group was able to consistently beat a 2x bigger 50% skill group in my reference mission (attack a guarded spot), losing in average 50%-80% men.

With builds >= 60890 i have yet to see a single win.

Edited December 5, 2009 by fabrizio_T

[Yapab 10]

I guess its a fine balance between sticking close/in formation with the leader AND taking cover and using objects well.... if they take cover correctly in combat they wont always be able to keep up with the leader or stay in formation.

I dont know which is better, well I would probably prefer slower out of formation squads than fast/dead squads which attempt to stay in formation at all times.

Yapa

[fabrizio_t 58]

I guess its a fine balance between sticking close/in formation with the leader AND taking cover and using objects well.... if they take cover correctly in combat they wont always be able to keep up with the leader or stay in formation.

I dont know which is better, well I would probably prefer slower out of formation squads than fast/dead squads which attempt to stay in formation at all times.

Yapa

Me too.

However I think the problem of having units strictly sticking to leader has to be confined to the situation in which the leader is a human player. A human player has the need to keep proximity / visual contact on squaddies to achieve some tactical control. AI leaders do not need this and leashing their units to them too tightly is causing a degree of unneeded inefficiency in their actions.

There's a way around: i hope it will be possible to restrict formation "tightening" routines to the player-led case or, alternatively it will possible to toggle these routines on/off.

For AI-led groups i think the "sweet spot" in balance between cover and formation keeping is way nearer to 60819 than 60899.

It was not broken, so why fix it ;) ?

Edited December 5, 2009 by fabrizio_T

[Beagle 684]

60899

New problem with SOM reinforcements.

Most of the time the UH1 will not land and reinforcement will not disembark.

Only workaround is to order Group members to embark UH1.

As soon as the UH1 lands, reinforcement units will disembark and SOM objektive can be completed.

[Colt45_GTO 10]

Really weird thing noticed in latest build.

Told my AI medic to HEAL TEAM LEADER (im the only one). AI medic starts running really far away and im following him to see where hes going. After some 300 meters of running he kills an eAI and then stops - like he's done his job. Checking the ACTION menu of my AI medic again and the HEAL TEAM LEADER is gone... Talk about weird huh.

Seems to be a bit iffy with medics in the latest builds. At least to my experience. No AI addons used when testing this. I will do more research and try to get something more substantial. Just giving some quick observation in here to see if others experienced it too or if its just me.

EDIT:

Another situation that is not so good with the AUTO-COMBAT mode when attacked is when you get overwhelmed by eAI. Before i could retreat and my AI followed me. Now they go into COMBAT mode and stay. They stay in a situation where we cannot win because there is too much eAI.

Auto COMBAT mode sounds great, and it is in certain (correct) situations. But many situations it does more harm than good.

yes i noticed this too.... i couldn't walk...

1, 2, Heal Man!

...

2, Roger.

2, Negative.

1, 2 Heal Man!

2, No Can Do!

1, bang!

3, Shit 2 is Down!

1, 3 Heal Man!

3, Roger!

i think he didn't want the same fate? he come healed me.

that was Beta 896.

i also noticed we was getting owned big time from previous beta's! i usually complete that level quite well. but now the eAI are all over us like a rash.

[.kju 3239]

People Suma said it multiple times now:

You need to provide them demo missions with repro steps

to allow them effectively sort the issues.

[jw custom 56]

All that...

go I'm covering

go

go i'm covering

go i'm covering

go i'm covering

go

go i'm covering

go i'm covering

go

...really drives you crazy :p

[Colt45_GTO 10]

All that...

...really drives you crazy :p

lol best part is if you get in a tank..

UNDER FIRE!

TAKING FIRE!

UNDER FIRE!

INCOMING!

TAKING FIRE!

...

..

..

then you hop out and all you can hear is....

GO I'LL COVER!

GO I'M COVERING!

MOVE!

man at times i cant do nothing for laughing :lol:

anyway whats the latest patch like>?

[jw custom 56]

anyway whats the latest patch like>?

That is with latest patch, but hey it's a beta ;)

Like mentioned before by Alex bunkers have some low texture issues.

Also mentioned before but i'll mention it again. Some waypoints doesn't work anymore, an example is the Sentry waypoint :)

Edited December 6, 2009 by JW Custom

[santafee 10]

Im COVERING !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

..............................................

:j::rolleyes:omw^^

[TheCrusader 10]

Just tested a little bit more, and in many things AI related 803 seems to be the sweet spot.

Maybe there are a few little things, but I for one am more than happy with this version of the beta.

If now only vehicles would pop smoke when they come under heavy fire it would be pretty much perfect IMHO.

[fabrizio_t 58]

Just tested a little bit more, and in many things AI related 803 seems to be the sweet spot.

Maybe there are a few little things, but I for one am more than happy with this version of the beta.

If now only vehicles would pop smoke when they come under heavy fire it would be pretty much perfect IMHO.

60803 is similar to 60819, the latter providing some fixes.

I agree.

Edited December 6, 2009 by fabrizio_T

[BeerHunter 0]

First off , I am MOST impressed with the interaction between the players and the developers in here.

Now a quirk I ran into (and I think it's been mentioned before but can't find it now).

I was playing the BI "Village Sweep". The armored vehicle at the top of the hill (don't know the techno term for it :rolleyes:) blew an enemy vehicle to smithereens but then...kept firing at it. Wasn't so much that we were in the shell impact area but that annoying "boom" Boom "boom".

I was able to get it to cease fire by switching to command mode then instructing it to cease fire but that shouldn't have been necessary.

Game bug or scripting error (didn't return that the target was destroyed) I'm not too sure.

Just thought I'd mention it..BTW using .60899

[lt_darkman 0]

60803 is similar to 60819, the latter providing some fixes.

I agree.

+2

Just ran the Trial by Fire mission again to note the difference and in 60899 my team just keep getting picked off by the enemy as they mess about on the slope before they even get into the village. I call them the asterisk (*) team as they spend so much time injured! I've also not yet seen the medic heal anyone and I've replayed it 7 or 8 times, each time getting owned by the enemy AI before the APC gets taken out :(

It wasn't the easiest mission before the changes but now it just becomes too frustrating to play. Friendly AI just don't seem to be as focussed on covering/healing each other as previous builds.

Bug #4042 I still can't change the video memory to 'default' without CTD either, though 'very high' still is perfectly stable. VRAM detection seems correct now though, just not stable when trying to use the full 1GB VRAM on the card. Flying over Elekrozavodsk (in Editor) and the islands just North of it remains the most strenuous test of graphics capability for me. I guess power lines and coastline rendering is the reason but the fps still drops to it's lowest level here every time when flying helos or planes.

P

[Scrub 0]

I agree with the 588 being the best AI interaction, followed by 819. in 588 I had to really keep track of the enemy, for flanking an suppression. My team did a much better job as well. I can't wait to see how the new AI awareness, skill, and capabilities balance out.

[Alex72 1]

I've also not yet seen the medic heal anyone and I've replayed it 7 or 8 times

You were the leader? Then you have to tell the medic to heal. AI dont turn to medics on their own when hurt. Its all decisions made by the leader.