nkenny

LAMBS Improved Danger.fsm by nkenny / diwako / joko Current version: 2.5.3 I am very happy to announce the release of a new AI improvement mod. At its core it is a considerable expansion of vanilla Danger.fsm. Added are features which extend the enemy response and reaction to fire. The overall goal is to make buildings part of the AI's available terrain. The AI will dynamically enter and clear buildings holding enemy soldiers. The nature of the the danger.fsm does not make these features a replacement for dedicated scripts and clever use of waypoints-- instead the mod should work seamlessly with existing missions. It puts no special demands on mission makers, nor does it add universal game mechanics with strategic implications. With the mod enabled the AI is a significantly more active combatant. The biggest changes is that the AI is now able to view buildings and structures as part of the tactical terrain. The AI will search through buildings, hide and garrison within, as well as provide suppressive fire against suspected enemy positions. In addition AI reactions to fire, even when the origin is unknown is expanded. The AI will also communicate threats to nearby allies. Armoured and tracked vehicles receive new custom behaviour which will see them always try to turn towards known enemies and hammer suspected locations of enemy forces. Features * AI will move inside buildings * Perform suppressive fire (Vehicles will dismantle buildings) * Panic, with special effects * React, even when exact enemy position is unknown * React by hiding in the presence of powerful vehicles when without equipment to deal with it * Check dead bodies, rearms when possible * Tanks will react by rotating towards threats * Improved civilian reactions, hiding in buildings and checking dead bodies * A special Close Quarter Battle mode when DELTA or FILE formation are used (formation can be configured) Some limitations of this implementation are twofold. For one, the Danger.fsm only triggers when the enemy feels threatened. Which makes the actions always purely reactive. This means that you should not expect pro-active searching through buildings, or changes in stance or formation based on terrain. Such things are simply governed elsewhere. Second limitation is myself. I am by education a philosopher, not a coder or computer developer. Please excuse my bumbling attempts. I intend to develop the mod further. In a sense it is already outdated based on my future plans. That said I wanted to release something now in a public sphere to gain more experience, feedback and perhaps garner more interest in FSM level modifications to AI behaviour. I see a lot of opportunities to add or fix annoying aspects of AI behaviour. I write that this release in a sense already outdated, because I intend to redo the current FSM flow structure; which is currently an expanded version of the Bohemia variant, which itself appears to have remained basically untouched since Arma2. Video Here is a (rather clumsily made) demonstrations video. The scenario consists of eight Spetsnaz soldiers assaulting three buildings held by 10 looters. The looters are garrisoned using CBAs taskDefend module. The attackers are given a single MOVE and SEARCH AND DESTROY waypoint. Their formation is set to DELTA/DIAMOND-- which triggers a special CQC mode. The attackers defeat all defenders and suffer zero casualties. No other special mods or scripts are in play. --- STEAM Workshop --- GitHub --- Development Discord

LAMBS Danger.fsm Current version 2.6.0 Requires CBA_A3 -- Changelog -- -- Changelog end -- LAMBS Danger.fsm 2.6.0 improves many aspects of the mod. One significant enhancement is to the group memory feature used when assaulting buildings. Essentially groups will register and share suspected positions of enemies. This improves how the AI conducts itself in close-quarter battles. Another area of focus has been streamlining many low-level actions, such as cover-to-cover movement, building prioritization, and introducing many breakout patterns to prevent the AI from becoming target-locked. LAMBS Danger.fsm 2.6.0 comes with a ton of feature enhancements and fixes which many of you have experienced on the Dev version. Hence the changelog, despite our attempts at zipping it, reaches into the sun. Other changes include improvements to vehicle AI. Specifically, a few cases of perfect knowledge have been removed, and infantry-to-armoured vehicle interplay has been made better. APC and IFV class vehicles will now unload troops when threats are nearby. As always, the team would like to thank our contributors and players who enjoy our mods. Thanks, everyone! STEAM Workshop --- GitHub --- Discord From the team diwako / joko / nkenny

LAMBS Danger.fsm Current version 2.5.3 Requires CBA_A3 -- Changelog -- -- Changelog end -- Wololo! This hotfix improves a few core features: Lowered AI paranoia, allowing them to return to Aware state. Improved danger evaluation, AI will no longer enter combat mode due to friendlies firing their guns. Smarter suppression utilisation, both individual and tactical, has been improved to make suppression function more efficiently in combat. Reintroduced the setting for disabling smoke grenades usage. Special thanks to Couls and YetheSamartaka for code and feature additions. STEAM Workshop --- GitHub --- Discord From the team diwako / joko / nkenny

@tanin69 Yes you can! You can disable FSM execution. Either by setting behaviour to CARELESS, OR disabling fsm execution. You can do this the BIS way: this disableAI "FSM" OR by setting the special lambs variable: this setVariable ["lambs_danger_disableAI", true, true];

LAMBS Danger.fsm Current version 2.5.2 Requires CBA_A3 -- Changelog -- -- Changelog end -- The long-awaited 2.5.2 is now here. It comes with a number of very interesting features. A considerably smarter system for evaluating suppression, armoured vehicles changing ammunition based on targets, the Ranged PBO, and we’ve implemented the SQFC standard for this and future releases. What does this mean? The enhanced suppression selection system lets units more intelligently choose whether or not to suppress potential targets. Each unit will evaluate its own position and that of the enemy, visibility, cover and concealment, before committing. Units will still suppress potential or assumed enemy positions, but are less likely to shoot at pointless positions. The new system greatly reduces instances of uselessly shooting at walls in towns. Armoured, turreted vehicles will now switch ammunition type based on available targets. Soft-skinned vehicles and infantry will be hit with HE, while AP and APDS will be used to engage enemy armour. This much-requested feature will greatly enhance the deadliness of enemy armour. Consider yourself warned! LAMBS Danger will also tweak AI sensitivity. This makes AI infantry much more able to spot enemies moving across open fields. Expect engagement ranges to be increased by 100-200 meters in favourable conditions. The use of cover and concealment to break visibility is more important than ever. AI ability to see at night, or to spot targets from vehicles, is unchanged. SQFC makes code work more gooder. In more technical terms it is SQF code precompiled which the engine can load faster. Code execution time is faster due to compile-time optimizations. In practical terms, it offers performance enhancements to the AI. The full extent of which we’re still mapping out. SQFC is already in use by major mods in the Arma3 community with more to follow. We’re part of that gang. As usual, there are a slew of bug fixes and minor enhancements. The ‘Suppressed’ eventhandler has been added to garrisoned and camped units, which will make them more responsive to enemy fire. We’ve also cleaned up and improved the performance of many other modules. NOTE: This version changes (and fixes) garrison modules. For mission makers that have set particular exit conditions will want to re-check Garrison modules in their missions. Previously the garrison module would not apply the selected exit condition consistently. That has been fixed. The team would like to thank our contributors: Floyd as video editor from Gruppe W, @veteran29 for code and translations, and @MiszczuZPolski for translations. Shout out to our Discord crew. The team always enjoys the lively banter of feature requests, bug reports and after-action reports (particularly when you all die or get suppressed through bushes, Muahahaha). STEAM Workshop --- GitHub --- Discord From the team diwako / joko / nkenny Video exploring the new suppression logic. Video made by @Floyd from Gruppe W

Updated LAMBS RPG Added LAMBS RPG RHS Added LAMBS RPG CUP Mods available on Steam workshop LAMBS RPG LAMBS RPG RHS LAMBS RPG CUP LAMBS RPG series mods add simple config tweaks to shoulder fired rockets, particularly the RPG7, and it makes the AI shoot rockets at infantry and other soft targets. On my youtube channel are a few examples of the mod in action. While standalone, it works great with LAMBS Danger.fsm. Enjoy! Ken

Glad you like it @redarmy You bring out many good points. Touching the medical system is a little bit outside our scope, but I wonder if you are running ACE3 medical? ACE3 adds AI that sets up healing routines and we specifically cater for it in lambs danger.fsm. I would love to see a video of AI falling to death, haha. It would help us tune the settings to fit modded content a bit better 🙂 -k

I agree. It would be good to have a stickied overview post of some kind.

I'd hazard the guess that it is a well-meaning oversight to funnel players to their own site. Their game, their rules. 🙂 -k

@EO Their own community site seems fairly active. https://community.sogpf.com/ -k

I don't think enough praise has been given for the pseudo-interiors added to some of the armoured vehicles in GM. It is a super smart system that I wish more mods adopted. Essentially, what you get are the portholes with the interior itself being blacked out. This gives the crew both a sense of space and adds useful viewpoints to look through.An excellent compromise between the immense effort of redoing vehicle interiors universally for a mod, and the simple, actual gameplay utility 3D-interiors are meant to give. -k

Quick review First thing that strikes me is that all vehicles and weapons look outstanding. Especially the Armalite variants and Huey helicopters have clearly had good work put into them. Overall there is a nice selection of kit without overwhelming the arsenal/eden with useless variants. Especially like the inclusion of tripod mounted MMGs, which are sorely missing in vanilla Arma3. The big stand out feature to me is the weapon animations which are fantastic. With the one exception of the oddly slowed AK/type-56 reload animation, all weapons handle wonderfully. These are probably the best I've seen out of any Arma3 content. As others have noted, the inclusion of melee is cool. Again, one of the best implementations I've seen in an Arma mod. I would have preferred to see this be handled by binding a button rather than relying on cycling fire-modes, but I haven't really tried it in practice. Perhaps it works better than anticipated. For the bad. I am no audiophile, but I found the sounds to a be a little samey. Shooting a AK sounds about as violent as shooting a tank cannon. On the issue of sameness, the terrain is quite big and has generous stretches of jungle, but some of the towns seem a little off. Perhaps it is the mixture of too familiar Arma assets or some other X factor. There are definitely better jungle terrains created for Arma3. What I do appreciate is the generous use of furniture throughout the terrain. This brings back fond memories of Takistan and is quite immersive. This is something I wish other mod packs did too. Creating more missions on the terrain may bring more positive experiences. Overall this is a pretty decent mod pack. Erm, I mean CDLC. I am sure it will generate new interest in Arma3. Already youtubers are gushing over the potential. The presentation of it is certainly very well done and the use of well known and respected military advisers is also a selling point. It is interesting that this CDLC seems to have generated more positive interest than Global Mobilization did. It might be timing. It might simply be that the Vietnam era is cooler and more high-speed. TL;DR + Cool setting and assets + Amazing weapon handling animations - Weapon sounds - Terrain Buy it to support the content creators and Bohemia and to have some cool missions to play. 🙂 -k

LAMBS Danger.fsm Current version 2.5.1 Requires CBA_A3 -- Changelog -- -- Changelog end -- This is going to knock your socks off. The big focus of this release has been refining existing features under three general headers: frames, flow and friction. Frames. For this version, we have improved and streamlined many of the most common AI- functions. The net result is an overall performance increase of some 5-10 FPS depending on your system. Flow. With the introduction of the new lambs_formations.pbo you will see increased combat ability from the enemy AI. Infantry will be faster to move into and through buildings. You will also see more compact infantry formations that will in turn be quicker to react. Friction. Through an active process of feedback and development, we’ve also removed many issues related to group-level tactics. Infantry performing group actions will act with increased authority and aggression. Group use of suppression will select targets more intelligently. Vehicles will use their weapons more sensibly, as it pertains to suppressing and facing enemies. Overall, you will meet a much more dangerous enemy. The team would like to extend special thanks to the people that provided commands and questions on the development version on steam and discord and in particular the developers that contributed content to the project: mjc4wilton, RCA3, MiszczuZPolski, and SzwedzikPL. STEAM Workshop --- GitHub --- Discord From the team diwako / joko / nkenny

Regarding suppression This is an interesting issue with a lot of features to untangle. The first thing to understand is that the AI lacks the contextual intelligence of a human. The AI does not read the briefing. It has no conception of historical or social contextual clues . It is also a product of computational compromises. In other words. The evaluations which humans find ridiculously obvious are fully invisible to the AI. Evaluations which for humans would be second nature, are extremely CPU intensive if done by the AI. All of this his fairly obvious for anyone who has thought about AI. But I think it bears repeating. Regarding LAMBS Danger. Our approach is to emulate human behaviour while presenting a seemingly intelligent and actually dangerous opponent. The flip side of this is that sometimes our algorithms fail to capture the context-rich environment in which the AI acts. An environment which is related to, but different from what humans experience. So why the lengthy essay? To contextualise how we've approached building the AI and some of the choices we are forced to make. Settings and 2.5.1 The next full release will bring considerable improvements to how and when the AI chooses suppression targets as a group. You can try it yourself on the Steam Workshop. You can already greatly customise some of the suppression level features. Here are three ways in which you can directly tweak suppression behaviours to your liking: - Increasing the minimum suppression range (it is by default 28 meters) to 50+ meters will greatly reduce both individual and group suppression in towns. We've chosen 28 meters as a default as a compromise. As of 2.5.1 50m is default. - Checking 'Disable autonomous Group manoeuvres' will remove all group level tactics. Which will basically remove all high level suppression events from AI opponents. - Disabling group AI variable on relevant units: <group> setVariable ["lambs_danger_disableGroupAI", true]; Ammunition conservation As mentioned suppression selection is vastly improved in 2.5.1, but the question of ammunition conservation is an interesting one. As I wrote above. The AI has no contextual understanding about the presumed length of an engagement or even the length of a mission. No knowledge of when, how, or if there will be resupplies. It is hard to make these things actionable. Our core philosophy is that it is better to spend a bullet, than have the AI spend its life. That doesn't always mesh with the goal of a longer lasting AI. Note that the AI will shoot less if the target is distant. It will chose not to suppress if its speedmode is set to FULL. Or if ordered to hold fire. Or line of sight is limited. So it isn't as if there is no contextual information being passed, but expecting the AI to understand the nuanced briefing text. Well. We're not there yet 🙂 -k

Ahh, what we're dealing with here is a misunderstanding of the variables. The variable you are changing will only prevent the group from performing GROUP TACTICAL ACTIONS. As civilians never do those. It will have no effect on them. What you'll want to do is to toggle the FSM variable on each individual civilian. Thusly: // LAMBS VARIABLE { _x setVariable ["lambs_danger_disableAI", true, true]; } foreach (units _grp); // UNIT FSM ~ conceivably this should also have a very similar effect. { _x disableAI "FSM"; } foreach (units _grp);

The relevant function is found in /main/unit/ and is called lambs_main_fnc_doUGL Here is how it works. Every leader assessment state, which will occur around every 60-180 seconds, depending on contact and current tactic, will make the AI potentially shoot flares. To shoot a flare it needs to be nighttime. The unit must not be wearing NVGs. One unit in the group must be equipped with a UGL launcher and have a flare in its inventory. As the function name suggests, it has to be an underbarrel grenade launcher. At the moment we do not support grenade launchers in secondary or primary weapon slots ala. M79 or HK320. Recently I have sometimes seen RHS units not shooting flares. This might be because they are configured differently than vanilla ones are. I might look into that in the future. The lambs_main_fnc_dotUGL is quite interesting, as it can also be used to make the AI shoot other things. Such as smoke. // assuming bob is the unit you want to shoot and angryBob is your target. // this will launch a smoke shell towards his location [units bob, getPos angryBob, "shotSmokeX"] call lambs_main_fnc_doUGL; @SHIFTY WOLF Those are interesting options.

@kremator @boss00521 https://github.com/nk3nny/LambsDanger/releases/tag/2.5.1_RC2 Zip for the current Development version.

@boss00521 Though not yet actualised, it will be available from our gitHub. -k

Development Version LAMBS Danger.fsm The team recently established a Development Version of LAMBS Danger.fsm on the Steam Workshop. That version has just been updated with another sneak peek at what 2.5.1 will bring. Changelog wrapped within Changelog end Performance A key focus area for 2.5.1 was performance. Both in the sense of AI flow and frames. Already, the development version has added massive performance improvements in both categories. You can try it right now on the steam workshop. LAMBS Formations This version sees the inclusion of an internal path and formation mod into LAMBS Danger.fsm. What to look for: 1. Infantry will be faster to move into and through buildings 2. Infantry formations will be slightly more compact, but also quicker to react 3. Stress and outright horror at being flanked and destroyed in urban areas. From the team diwako / joko / nkenny

@sammael BIS config I'm afraid. I guess it would be possible to mod somehow, but unfortunately with setting. -k

@Broseph_Stalin90 All groups have a 'reaction' or contact state they go through on first meeting the enemy. This means diving for cover, suppressing, and crawling into buildings. This can be disruptive on the player group. So we have an option to turn it off. If you've toggled the general AI for the player group. No worries. -k

@oldy41 Glad you liked it. 1. The AI will deploy smoke grenades and 40mm smoke (when available) to cover certain types of actions. Both can be toggled in CBA settings. Mind you, the AI will also deploy smoke when suppressed via. standard Bohemia config. 2. Link

I really like this mod. The concept is nice, small and compact. It plays well with existing assets and slots right into the Arma3 metaverse. It looks, performs and shoots good too! The FIA retextured variants are particularly beautiful. Because I snuck a peek into the backend I did notice two small things: 1. It seems like the SCAR mechanical rate of fire should be slightly lower. Most sources list it at 550-650. The version on steam workshop has a reloadTime of 0.07 ~ 857RPM Where it should be closer to 0.092 (adding or subtracting whatever makes it feel nice). 2. EGLM variant rifles do not have reduced handling characteristics through Inertia and dexterity settings. I really like this mod concept and hope to see more of it in the future! Particularly some drop-in Machine guns or other support weapons would be a god send for light-weight joint ops. 5/5 -k

@Devastator_cm Your confusion is understandable. The CQB waypoint remains the same. The CQB formations (configured by default to be "FILE" and "DELTA/DIAMOND") no longer have specific behaviours attached to them. That functionality having been supplanted by the new group memory system. The old functionality has just been commented out and might reappear in the future. -k

LAMBS Danger.fsm Current version 2.5.0 - Turing Requires CBA_A3 Changelog Added new FSM with greatly streamlined performance and functionality Added Group Memory layer for CQB Added infantry cover seeking function Added infantry ability to reposition within buildings Added better checks to skip out FSM if AI behaviour is forced Added new leadership assessment, contact, and tactics state Added Group Attack -- making the entire group attack a single target Added Group Garrison -- letting groups temporarily garrison buildings Added Group Hold – groups without clear sight of enemies or when overwhelmed by enemy fire will reassess while hiding and manning nearby static weapons Added group ability to respond to distant snipers by suppression or garrisoning or counter-attacking Added Dynamic Reinforcement framework with a reinforcement event handler* Added Eden settings to toggle group AI and reinforcement option Added improvements to taskAssault waypoint (reliability and tactical proficiency) Add two different ‘contact states** Added ability for vehicles to call artillery fires Added more refined support for ACE3 medical AI. (Fewer instances of AI attempting first aid while engaging or under fire). Added friendly fire check to AI called artillery Added units set to ‘FULL’ speedMode will not choose slow or defensive tactical options. Added improved handling of mechanized/armoured infantry working in conjunction with tanks. Tanks will cover while infantry attack Added post-contact behaviour. Units with active groupMemory will continue clearing suspected enemy locations. Added more active use of ‘enableAttack’ in contact and group actions to more tightly control AI. Added and improved player UI elements Added Polish Localisation Added Russian Localisation Added many performance fixes and enhancements Improved mod file structure for easier maintenance Improved FSM priorities for added dynamism Improved vehicle AI performance and speed Improved infantry group AI in scope and intelligence Improved CQB ability by increasing aggression and movement speeds Improved infantry dodging and seeking cover Improved group flanking Improved group hiding Improved group assaults in speed and consistency Improved check body routines by differentiating between allies and enemies and adding a shared communications and group memory layer Improved fleeing state in speed and cover seeking ability by assessing enemies within line of sight or current suppression states Improved and fixed various aspects of civilian AI Improved armed trucks will continuously suppress targets and will attempt to shift location if threatened. Improved handling and threat management of armoured vehicles shifting locations Improved FSM timings Improved many debug markers and system messages Improved group assessment state with better performance and more intelligent responses to enemy presence Improved AI will attempt to suppress targets at longer ranges Improved AI will use ‘hide’ and ‘garrison’ tactics in smarter, less intrusive manners. Improved debug information with more salient content in Debug UI Improved debug draw performance Fixed Debug UI not resetting on Single player Restart Fixed Debug UI not removing old and unused controls correctly Fixed group hiding from being too invasive Fixed Infantry fighting vehicles and tanks unwillingness to destroy buildings held by enemies. Fixed AI units becoming stuck in ‘ATTACK’ pattern when an enemy is incapacitated with ACE3 enabled. Fixed civilian AI running in place Fixed Static artillery (mortars and modded guns) not resetting after a fire mission. Fixed AI less likely to drop prone away from cover Fixed packing and unpacking static weapons. Occasionally modded weapons would fail to register. Function more reliable overall. Fixed units that have gone through a contact state will always re-assess. Fixed units without ready weapons attempting to assault into CQB! Fixed friendly fire issue with contact state Changed lambs_wp_fnc_taskReset now returns a group instead of boolean. Removed CQB formations*** Version 2.5.0 This is the long-awaited full structural improvement and rewrite of the mod. It comes with a fresh new FSM and reorganised and improved functions. In truth, the listed changelog does not do it justice as nearly every function has been improved or expanded. Listing all changes would add page upon page. Tactically, the AI is smarter than ever. Individually, the new FSM brings an entirely new experience in fighting AI. Responsiveness has been much improved, and the AI is more likely to apply suppressive fire to known and suspected enemy positions. Group assessment stages have been equally improved and the group tactics have been painstakingly tested and tried and expanded. Units engaged in CQB will share targets and building information within their own group. This adds a group memory layer, which means units will try to search through and attack suspected enemy positions in a coordinated manner. Units that are out of range will contribute suppressive fire. Reinforcements This version also adds a simple, yet potent reinforcement system connected directly to the information sharing feature. Reinforcing groups will make simple pre-battle assessments and may deploy or pack static weapons, change formations, or other acts of reorganisation. As always, it is non-invasive and is only activated on groups set by the mission maker. Use is easy. Set a variable on the group, and this unit will now respond when allies within radio communication range call for help. Setting the variable can be done in multiple ways: Either through Zeus modules, Eden settings, or writing it directly to the group. <group> setVariable [“lambs_danger_enableGroupReinforce”, true, true]; With an entirely new FSM framework and reorganised file structure, we’re expecting some trouble. Though rigorously tested internally, in many large scale games, there will unquestionably be some hiccups. We will be on the ball to fix these as they come. The new FSM brought with it some changes in functionality. Among those features which have been temporarily disabled are the CQB Formations module. The functionality exists in the back end, but the group memory feature is set to do a better job. We will listen to feedback in regards to re-implementing this in the future. Many of the internal functions have been moved from the lambs_danger to the lambs_main module. This is part of the mod restructure, which makes the mod easier to maintain, more portable, and more customizable for the end-user. It comes with the unfortunate price of having to re-check your settings. Finally, the team would like to give thanks to: DarkWanderer for excellent feedback on the civilian.fsm. MiszczuZPolski and Veteran29 for Polish translations and FoxnotMulder and Necrossin for Russian translations. From the team diwako / joko / nkenny --- STEAM Workshop --- GitHub --- Discord Addendum: 1. REINFORCEMENT. The reinforcement feature could do with a few more words. Groups with the reinforcement variable set will respond to friendly information sharing events. If the enemy is known, they will move towards that location. If not, they will move to the unit calling for help. - Groups will act with increased autonomy. Based on the distance and visibility of the enemy they will: Adopt formation changes. Shoot flares. Pack and unpack carried static weapons. More types of behaviour will be added in the future. Be aware that the reinforcement feature may override existing waypoints based on the context of the situation. - The level of emergent play can be enhanced by attaching more checks to the eventhandler: “lambs_main_onReinforce”. As per our design philosophy, the default implementation remains seamless. You won’t see AI randomly stealing cars or wandering away from their assigned tasks! 2. CONTACT. On first spotting, the enemy or being fired at the unit will enter a contact state. This version expands the previous behaviour by introducing an aggressive Push-through response to units that, though threatened, are not both suppressed and surprised. In the aggressive response, the enemy will suppress known or likely enemy locations and attempt to move into and through them. All in all the AI is quicker to respond to contacts and less likely to become stuck. Getting the drop on the enemy is more important than ever! 3. CQB formations removed for this version. Their old functionality is better handled by the group memory feature. The old framework has been updated and will be re-implemented under a different guise at a future time