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

[.kju 3240]

You cannot compare FPS with the same viewdistance, at least post 1500 settings.

Now as objects are drawn further away, especially vegetation, the number of objects

rendered increased a lot.

This is of course the price to pay.

[fabrizio_t 58]

An observation about build 60588:

- The tweaked "situational awareness" sounds like a simple "sensitivity" param change. Its raised back to about v.1.02 levels. This makes AI more aggressive and give them better eye and thats's good, but it hinders any stealthy tactics too. I think situational awareness can't be "hotfixed" by simply playing with "sensitivity" values.

Some observations about build 60588 as well as other recent 60xxx patches:

GOOD

- AI groups split for suppression & movement;

- better AI group cohesion to some extents, compared to v.104;

- Leaders less suicidal;

BAD

- AI units still don't react to area fire by unknown enemies. They simply ignore bullets whizzling by and don't even go prone unless a threat is spotted.

- The prone-man-in-courtyard syndrome: AI infantry groups (50% average skill) have problems in taking out single stationary prone units. Leaders send units to attack one-by-one without attempting any coordinated attack nor using grenades effectively enough;

- When moving in combat mode AI units still can't keep formation tight and end up scattered; sometimes AI Leaders should wait minutes for the group to form by;

- When changing combatMode from RED to YELLOW units require ages to fall back into formation;

- AI units still think some types of metal fences are a good cover (and they're just shot in the back);

- AI units often ignore "doFollow" orders when have targets in sight;

- AI machinegunners still fire while switching animations and cause friendly fire issues;

- Is the "SEARCH AND DESTROY" waypoint type working ? It looks like AI handles it like just a plain "MOVE" waypoint, i can't see AI engaging known nearby threats anymore. Units just sit and wait near waypoint position. Raising waypoint completion radius does not help.

- AI units still don't use smoke grenades;

- Air units sometimes just overrun waypoints;

All in all i'm seeing good progress with the AI, hope to see these things fixed as well as problems with air vehicles routes/pathfinding and loading/unloading issues.

Edited November 28, 2009 by fabrizio_T

[Gutm@sher 10]

Thought I'd throw 2 cents in. The ai guys in your squad seem to be OVERLY concerned with their well being with beta 588 imo. playing BE warfare, I told my corpsman to heal me while not under fire. He takes 3 steps, lies down or kneels and repeats over and over until he gets to me. tell him to get in a vehicle however and he sprints there. Saw same behavior with squad regroup with all members of squad, again not under fire and in safe mode. Overall i like the new beta and except for the rocky bit a couple of betas back they keep getting better and better.

[Bouben 3]

An observation about build 60588:

BAD

- AI units still don't react to area fire by unknown enemies. They simply ignore bullets whizzling by and don't even go prone unless a threat is spotted.

I am not sure about that.

Otherwise I agree with everything you've written. AI is still really problematic, but good progress is visible.

[Yapab 10]

Question to all:

Is the AI aware of vehicles in the area/map? (around it)

For example will an AI unit use a vehicle if its empty to improve their offence?

I have never seen an AI get into an empty vehicle and try to use it to for example chase an enemy or kill them if its a turret mounted vehicle.

There is a similar game to ARMA2 which was released recently in which I did see this behaviour from the AI, at one stage me and my squad ren away from the check point only to have the enemy AI get into a vehicle and chase us down, then get out of it and engage us in combat (we were on foot).

This was not scripted, was awesome to see and encounter. It seemed as if the AI was aware of vehicles in its area and could use them to fast move or for combat.

Would this be worthwhile putting into devheaven as a feature request?

Yapa

[Wupjak 0]

Thumbs way up on the latest AI tweaks. I'm getting mercilessly schooled at range. Much different experience. Daddy like.

Gonna try to set up freetrack today for even more unabashed nerdery. Keep up the great work, BIS.

[jw custom 56]

Just noticed they changed the muzzle flash :)

Hmmm does the M4 models have a new muzzle flash now :confused:

The MG's got the old muzzle flash which i believe the M4 also used to have... or maybe i'm just going crazy!

New muzzle flash?

Edited November 28, 2009 by JW Custom

[Mudkip 0]

Hmmm does the M4 models have a new muzzle flash now :confused:

The MG's got the old muzzle flash which i believe the M4 also used to have... or maybe i'm just going crazy!

New muzzle flash?

Umm... That's that pic is of an M16, the M4 still has the same flash...

[otrebla_snake_ita 2]

When BIS is releasing the 1.05? Christmas?

[jw custom 56]

Umm... That's that pic is of an M16, the M4 still has the same flash...

Yeah your right, but did the M16's always have that muzzle flash ?

[Mudkip 0]

Yeah your right, but did the M16's always have that muzzle flash ?

Yep...

[nomdeplume 0]

Question to all:

Is the AI aware of vehicles in the area/map? (around it)

For example will an AI unit use a vehicle if its empty to improve their offence?

No, they won't, unless scripted to do so. Groups which include vehicles (mechanized/motorized infantry) will automatically load up and unload to get around, and debark when the enemy is detected.

Not sure if it's something I'd like implemented in the core game. It sounds good in theory, but I think for any particular mission/situation, the decision whether or not to use vehicles involves a lot of variables that the game engine itself won't necessarily have access to. For example, what if your mission goal is to destroy (or protect) a particular vehicle, and the AI unpredictably decide to utilise it?

If it were implemented by BIS I think there'd need to be a way to override or customise its behaviour. Given that it's already possible for mission designers to incorporate this in a way which makes sense for their mission, I think it would be a pretty low priority.

[blaunarwal 10]

Just played around with editor on Sahrani using new beta build. Worked fine for me. I've got CAA1 updated to the latest files from their server (using Yoma's)... . Who else is getting this crash?

I get the crash too. It's only with the latest betas 60588 and also with 60393 I think. Before it worked fine. My CAA1 update is up to date by today.

Though they say it's solved with a new config.cpp, it doesn't seem to work with the latest betas. http://dev-heaven.net/issues/show/6328#change-26530

[Ringhejm 10]

Ever since this release ARMA2_Build_59210 I keep getting the "receving" in the middel of the scren. No matter what i do it keep comming.

Bthe version I have postet is OK, but all the version after that is crap. Why do I sudently get that "Receving" ???? there must be something in the patch that does it.

[Sniperwolf572 758]

CAA1 has it's own thread here, please use that instead to discuss and report CAA1 issues to their authors.

[Yapab 10]

If it were implemented by BIS I think there'd need to be a way to override or customise its behaviour. Given that it's already possible for mission designers to incorporate this in a way which makes sense for their mission, I think it would be a pretty low priority.

Yes I agree it would be low priority as a feature, but I think as a "simulation" game the AI would really benefit from such behaviour, after all if you were out in the field and saw a nice Jeep abandoned you would probably take it instead of hiking 5k down the road :)

I think it would also add more realism and simulation to the AI, but obviously this is not an easy thing to implement.

As for the problem of it getting in the way of mission design, that could easily be overcome by having a flag for each vehicle which basically allows the vehicle to be controlled by the AI in real time or not. So the vehicles with the flag off would be invisible to the AI and not usable.

Yapa

[Alex72 1]

BIS: Any chance of making the KEEP LOW (copy my stance) having the AI to actually follow our stances? They lay down if we lay down, but if i crouch they dont do anything. I kind of miss a dynamic stance mode for the AI. Its a bit of a bummer to tell them to crouch/stand up all the time. Crouch could be there when you really need them to crouch even though you stand. But if the KEEP LOW was dynamic through prone/crouch/stand and the AI follow that then it would be easier to play. Less hassle so to speak, and easier for newbies probably. :)

Maybe some AI limitation with this? When a group is completely AI i mean? I know this has ben adressed before around here, but it would be really sweet to have them follow what the leader does.

[Bouben 3]

BIS: Any chance of making the KEEP LOW (copy my stance) having the AI to actually follow our stances? They lay down if we lay down, but if i crouch they dont do anything. I kind of miss a dynamic stance mode for the AI. Its a bit of a bummer to tell them to crouch/stand up all the time. Crouch could be there when you really need them to crouch even though you stand. But if the KEEP LOW was dynamic through prone/crouch/stand and the AI follow that then it would be easier to play. Less hassle so to speak, and easier for newbies probably. :)

Maybe some AI limitation with this? When a group is completely AI i mean? I know this has ben adressed before around here, but it would be really sweet to have them follow what the leader does.

+1:thumbs-up:

exactly. I hope BIS will fix that in some future patch. And AI shouldn't stay at all when in combat - only if they need to see behind some obstacle, but crouch and prone should be prevalent.

[Scrub 0]

As for the problem of it getting in the way of mission design, that could easily be overcome by having a flag for each vehicle which basically allows the vehicle to be controlled by the AI in real time or not. So the vehicles with the flag off would be invisible to the AI and not usable.

Yapa

Hi Yapa,

There already is sort of a flag for such things - 'locked'. I agree it would be nice for the option of 'deep behind enemy lines' type actions such as this.

But I wonder what the realism dept. would say about scamming a hummer or what not that did not belong to you or your group.

[ginger mcale 11]

Yeah would be great to have "copy my stance" to work with crouch also.

Car horns working in multiplayer would be also great.

And a point at the action menu (6) to say to the AI to turn off the engine of their vehicle would be also great.

*edit*

And it would be great if parachuting AI troops could surive their parachute. Often only half AI team or less do surive a parajump. Not possible at the moment to use AI to parachute at the moment in ArmA 2.

Edited November 29, 2009 by Ginger McAle

[funkee 0]

Hi folks. Just 1 screenshot from latest beta. The "Unique" AI from New Generation Game ArmA2 covers me:

Btw. After a few months of waiting for new patch I got bored and tried latest beta (build 60588), to check out if something was changed. Here are my impressions:

1. enemy see and shoot me when I'm lieing hiden in grass and can't see anything, even if they lie too

2. delay in movement (soldier need some time to move after pressing "move forward" key)

3. still horrible performance, even worse than before (check out Modern Warfare 2 to see how smooth the game can and should be)

4. raising weapon in crouch position still doesn't work - soldier stands up instead (reported this x times already, but nobody listen)

5. ACOG sight still owersized

6. reporting downed enemies works only sometimes

7. can't strafe (step left-right) while sprinting

8. reporting enemies behind obstacles (walls, buildings etc.)

9. I hit the guy in head (can see a blood) and he's still alive...?

10. really stupid AI stand in danger (even under fire) instead of get down or take cover (100% agree with Alex72 and others)

11. AI moving looks strange and unnatural (soldier get up, stay a while and only then move, also turning arround looks kinda robotic)

12. mouse lag still somewhere (GPU_MaxFramesAhead command do nothing)

13. poor, delayed animations

14. laggy multiplayer

15. something's wrong with first singleplayer mision (chopper takes off from carrier just after mission starts, so I cant get into)

16. ...and many more.

Summing up, for me these new betas fix/add nothing (I can't see any difference). Going back to AA3 / MW2 (in new CoD I'm 70 honor now and didn't see ANY little bug yet). Still waiting for some improvements, probly another months if not forever...

Edited November 30, 2009 by funkee

[Pauldarrington 9]

3. still horrible performance, even worse than before (check out Modern Warfare 2 to see how smooth the game can and should be)

.

I stopped reading after this.

You Cant compare performance between MW2 and ArmA2 End Of Story.

[neokika 62]

I stopped reading after this.

You Cant compare performance between MW2 and ArmA2 End Of Story.

I did not stop, but Im still laughing...

These new beta are a really improvement, grass layer, Performance, AI, Driving, etc...(no difference...lol)

Im beggining to think that you did not installed the beta correctly.

Edited November 30, 2009 by neokika

[mattxr 9]

I stopped reading after this.

You Cant compare performance between MW2 and ArmA2 End Of Story.

Agreed so much wrong with that statement alone! i could right an essay on this but i'm too tired dnt want to waste my time lol.

Latest Beta is awesome with the hueys laser now working finally!

[Scrub 0]

Hey Funkee,

These are the betas.

You just got a snapshot of something they TRIED. They TRY things in betas.

We had one 2 (3-4?) versions ago that had awesome AI and performance - the next broke something, next fixed that something and tried something else and reduced performance, but vastly upped the draw distance (you probably missed that). These are BETAS. Wait to be so solidly condemning after an official patch which will most likely balance what was observed from the beta period.

As for damage from the headshot, what difficulty were you in? I never had that issue in veteran.

Besides all that - do you know the flea speck area and quantity of objects in MW2 takes next to nothing on CPU to run? And you compare it to the monstrously large streaming environment of A2? It's a peanuts to watermelons argument. It is sounding like A2 simply isn't for you, because this really is all part of the 'BIS' experience. :)