Seil

For the record, we're seeing decent results in urban CQB scenarios utilizing smaller enemy squads, 3-4 ai per squad. Just setting them up properly with all the various attributes in the waypoints.... They act pretty smart from what we're seeing.... I guess I would like to know and see more specifics about the AI functionality that is "not smart".... The biggest issue I've seen is difficulty for the AI squads to stay tight in some areas with many obstacles. Even then however, I'm seeing them pie corners and minimize their exposure while engaging targets. Furthermore, nearly every engagement we find ourselves in, the AI properly establishes a base of fire with one or more squads while others maneuver. This is the type of behavior that's expected really... Areas I know other people cite as problematic that WotG has tested and found working fine in A3:Alpha (Not to say there isn't a need for improvement in some areas): AI seeing through vegetation: They see the same thing you do... If there's a moving object partially obscured by vegetation, the AI properly detects the movement and assumes it's something to investigate. Most of the time when the AI knows you're behind a bush, they watched you get there. AI seeing you from a distance while you are partially obscured from good cover: We spot enemies like this all the time and it's only natural that the AI can spot your head moving around over the top of a wall or similar. Motion attracts the eye, moving along the same routes without exposing yourself proves that the AI can only see you when you're exposed. AI Detects you by sound / other OBVIOUS events: They don't have to see you to know you're there. Just like I don't have to see you to know you're there (that's how my grenade lands at your feet EVERY TIME)... They also will respond to the presence of gun fire / tracers - even if not directed at them specifically. The AI communicates: Some AI will direct others towards a threat zone that has been identified; Just like you'd call your team to maneuver to support you. The AI just walks around stupidly and doesn't pay attention to you: The mission designer did not adequately set or trigger the combat mode, awareness and behavior attributes for the unit / unit's waypoints. Every AI unit recognizes you and begins to engage from afar: You are NOT concealed in your movements to close the ground, and are not being aware of your surroundings. (This is where you are required to have a strategy, not just run through the open) The AI walks through doors / walls: We call this the "Jesus Walk" and yes it's an actual bug (as of ArmA2, haven't seen it happen yet in A3). I did see an AI run around a wall and choose to cross into the yard via an area of the wall that had been blown apart that humans would also choose to cross at that point. The AI has morale: They will change their behavior based on the situation; If you have 20 guys ambushing the AI, they will lose morale and begin to route if they feel like they're overwhelmed and need to retreat to survive the fight. (If you start shooting at a whole squad by yourself, they'll recognize a single target is engaging them and work to overcome. If you have a whole squad engaging them instead of just one man, and you can inflict enough casualties immediately with surprise, they will be less motivated to counter-attack. OTHER AI UNITS will still continue to press you however.) The AI will attempt to use buildings, windows, doorways etc to gain a vantage point on their target and engage from cover. This is a little more rare than other behaviors, but does happen without the use of any special scripts and does have a very strong effect on engagements in urban environments. They don't have to do it every time to force you to stay aware of the fact that they could realistically be taking elevated vantage points overlooking your position. Meaning your squad still has to cover those places in their fire sectors all of the time. AI attempts to utilize cover / minimize exposure to enemies: Worst case, they'll drop prone and increase the difficulty to hit them; when available they attempt to use cover and lean out to engage. AI uses suppressing fire: They will use their belt fed weapons by default, but not required to pin you down with suppressing fire. The most unrealistic part of this that I have seen is that human players think they're superman and try to lean out of a corner that is CLEARLY being suppressed with incoming fire. When suppressing fire is coming in, it means you will die if you attempt to re-engage from that corner again - find another way to maneuver. AI uses smoke for obstruction: If hit somewhat hard/surprised the AI will drop smoke to obscure your line of sight and maneuver (retreating the engaged area and finding a new angle to attack you from. -------------------- Performance tuning the mission: Every AI is running a loop as described earlier. If you have too many things happening all at the same time, it will delay the response of each AI, as they are taking turns to access CPU power. This means that if you can only handle running 50 AI alive at any time, then by putting 200 in there, you're going to make the AI "dumber" by slowing down the response of everyone. Here the way to balance the performance / mission size is about detecting when squads have been eliminated and replacing them with dynamically created ones. (Thus getting more AI without overrunning the performance threshold of how many can be alive at once.) -------------------- Please cite specific details of the AI's short comings. -Seil

Not sure what goals / timeline looks like for the UPS script, however performance is verrry bad right now. We just removed this from every mission we were using it on for A3:A due to the performance overhead. Removing the script from the mission will remove about 2/3 of server load for the same mission unchanged in any other way. I haven't had time to look at the logs at all, and I'm at work now; Just wanted to give you a heads up. -Seil

A note on performance that we [WotG] confirmed last night: The current ArmA3 Urban Patrol Script is awful on performance. If you are using the UPS script addon for your missions, you'll see MASSIVE lag from AI operations. If you remove that addon and use stock AI, you'll notice a much smoother experience and be able to utilize a lot more AI in a mission. -Seil

I get that, and as a long-time supporter of BI, I/we have pushed the limits on the AI at every opportunity. That being said, if you track the discussions concerning the AI behavior and FSM programming for them in ArmA 2, you see there are a number of limitations that prevent the AI from becoming "smarter" / more complex.... From my experience testing that alpha, it seems that BI has been working to expand / evolve the AI logic. I presume this is still running via FSM logic, and is still un-optimized (each AI has a separate FSM running and processing). Until optimizations happen / improve, I would presume the AI to be a heavy load while functionality debugging is finished. -Seil

There is no magic wand to wave over the code and magically it will run perfect on your computer! Furthermore, as a software engineer, I can tell you that code optimization, does NOT happen on a project until the END. Focus during development is almost exclusively placed on getting functionality built - not making it smooth. Still, even before optimization occurs things like compatibility fixes are worked on; because the answer is NO: the same piece of code does not work on ALL video cards, sound cards, etc. You have access to the alpha so that you can constructively CONTRIBUTE to the development of the platform - I really wish everyone making bug reports would quite making it sound like they're bugs in ArmA2, a product already released and on the shelves. The Alpha basically gives you an opportunity to watch the development occur and test the current version. *Any given application's CPU time is determined by MORE than just the application. The OS (especially newer versions of windows) manage the processor load and priorities in respect to all of the various software modules that are running at any one point. Almost no one pays attention to how much other crap is running concurrently in your OS, most people that do go tweaking in these areas, rarely get the job done completely right either. If you want better performance across the board, optimize your system. And I know everyone will reply and say "but my system is 100% optimized legit and only has ArmA installed" .... YEAH!???? Is that a fact? you've turned off all the crap like windows updates, defender, uac, pre-fetching.... the list is about 100 pages long of things that need to be configured in your OS just to get that to quit hogging system performance. That will make more of an impact in fact than a new CPU (in the same class) most of the time. Relax, enjoy the show, and give them some time to work through the schedule :D -Seil

and :D -Seil

We are currently working on a number of upgrades and fixes for the Arrowhead / Combined Ops platform. The aim of this project is to bring realistic capabilities to ArmA where it is definitely missing. Some of this is adding new features, a lot of it is reconfiguring existing units and equipment to reflect real life attributes. The first preview of this project is the beta of our M134 upgrade. The M134 has been adjusted in a number of ways, including: Real magazine sizes More realistic rate of fire (within the limits of the ArmA2 engine) Adjusting the M134 to more correctly be an area effect weapon rather than a point effect weapon Correcting the weapon's method of firing and using ammunition to increase the number of rounds ACTUALLY being fired down range Correcting tracer quantity to allow for accurate Aim-By-Tracer capability (Yes there will be available option to use the M134 without tracers for those want such a loadout) Added impact effects Adjusted deflection angles to more accurately see large volumes of the rounds deflect off the target Stabilized turret Increased turret spin speed for smoother targeting Adjusted penetration values for more accurate terminal ballistics of AP rounds And more Our beta version of the M134 is running on the beta upgrade of the UH-1Y which has the following corrections: Ability to carry both the 7 and 19 count rocket pods FLIR added to nose mounted sniper cam (OA retro-fit) Countermeasures added (OA retro-fit) Inclusion of WotG upgraded M134 on both door guns New FFAR launcher weapon (more details to come soon) Added ability to carry backpacks in cargo (OA retro-fit) Added door ledge seating for 1 person on each side of the chopper And more We have not nor at this time plan on creating or modifying the models or textures of the Venom or M134, these changes are entirely functionality not appearance. We would really love to realistically modify the UH1Y and other choppers flight characteristics to be much closer to real life, however are unable to do so without editing the model. Creating an all new model for every aircraft is a lot of work that we would love to do, but don't currently have the time for. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The upgraded FFAR Launcher's Features: Real fire modes: Single, Double and Salvo Multiple Rocket Types: HEDP (10 and 17 "Pounders", HEAT, Flechette, White Phosphorus and Smoke Released Demonstration Teaser Videos: M134 Upgrade Teaser AH-6J Little Bird equipped with upgraded M134 and FFAR Launcher WotG Realism Platform Teaser Videos (YouTube) -Seil

New video has finally been uploaded! You can find it here on our youtube channel in HD ;) http://www.youtube.com/user/WotG4LiFe A short demonstration of the AH-6J equiped with Twin M134 miniguns and new upgraded FFAR launcher. The video shows Little Birds with locked fire modes set to Double release Hydra 70 Rockets and High ROF M134s. The upgraded FFAR Launcher's Features: Real fire modes: Single, Double and Salvo Multiple Rocket Types: HEDP (10 and 17 "Pounders", HEAT, Flechette, White Phosphorus and Smoke Thanks for the patience and sorry for the delay. (A string of issues delayed the video production and it was rushed to finish and upload, we're well aware of the issues you may see with it) -Seil

Yessir! We are working on a large number of things. Terribly sorry about the delays, our next video has had some issues that should be taken care of now and online soon, I keep telling everyone to look for it, and we keep delaying it. My apologies. Next video is a teaser for the AH-6J Little Bird loaded up with new M134s and Hydra Launcher. More on the way! ;) -Seil

Sorry Robert, I'm not a big fan of ACE..... in either event, we should definitely talk you and I.... and thank you on the compliment :D HUGE fan btw, we are truly in debt to you and your work, thank you. fyi to everyone: The M134 mod isn't the WotG Realism Platform Mod...... it's a fraction of it. We have another video about to be released, hopefully be uploaded today, it should already be done on cutting. -Seil

I'll upload a copy of the video to our web server in a bit when I get back home. I'd appreciate it if everyone used Youtube rather than our web server to get the video, but for those who are having issues I don't want to stop them from seeing the video. Carl: There's a reason it's still in beta and hasn't been released, pretty much thorough testing. :D We've experienced no issues thus far with lag or load with the volume of fire coming from these guns in our testings. We test in both SP and MP and on both listen and dedicated servers with a large array of internet connections and everything has been smooth as butter so far. Yes there is a limitation to the number of rounds that can be fired from a gun based on the engine's frame loop. Our mod doesn't get around that issue. There are things that BIS could've configured themselves to achieve a higher "true" ROF with the miniguns had they tried or decided to. I'm unsure as to why they didn't. Our miniguns are not firing at a constant 4000 rpm right now, they fire somewhere between 3000 to 4000 depending on the engine's ability to, in effect "keep up" ;) The average rate of fire that is being achieved is about 3700 rpm. We can't really "lock" the ROF to 4000 for various reasons, but we're letting it run up to 4000 for the events in which it can be possible. It is a known limitation, however the current config we have running is a night and day difference on our firepower down range. The entire point of the M134 is to have a large volume of fire down range as an area effect weapon. Without having that, you might as well use an M240 or M2. We really have no interest in the M134 if it cannot do what it is supposed to do, on the other hand if it can do what it is supposed to do, it is a very powerful weapon to have. That being said, I can say we're pretty sure it can do what it's supposed to at this stage of the ever evolving ArmA platform. The tracers are indeed important, but even every round being a tracer in the current BIS config, you still have a tiny amount of fire going down range in comparison to what it should be. Altimeter: I cannot say how the file structure will be of the mod at this time, because we're still putting that together, but I can say that our method of structure is designed to be modular in a way that you can easily use a part of the entire package without being forced to use it all. More details on that will come soon. -Seil

Thank you everyone for great feedback. We have more on the way, MUCH MUCH more. The M134s have already been loaded onto other platforms in addition to the UH-1Y, namely the little birds, which is just.......... amazing. Also have rebuilt a new FFAR Launcher weapon class, new upgrades to the AH1Z, and we're just barely scratching the surface, will be releasing more details asap! Thanks again! -Seil

That's an EBR man. -Seil

Yeah, I've had this happen as well, once you've completed either of the two and then return to choose the other one, it flips out. The game runs REALLY SLOW I eventually did get to a rendered frame of the cockpit of the AH64 (I did the UAV first) once, but then I quit out tried again and found I had to issue a flush command and then it worked fine. Side note: I like the confirmation text that shows now "Activated Flush", don't remember if that was in ArmA2 or not, if so I don't remember it. ---------- Also, concerning the Static Weapons: 1.) Placing the tripods and M2 Mini-tripod bags in the editor and assembling them works, however they cannot be disassembled. 2.) Placing an M2 Static in the editor allows you to disassemble carry and re-assemble just fine. You can also use the M2 bag it produces with a different tripod and assembles just fine as well. 3.) The M2 bag placed from the editor (not the mini-tripod one, the one that is supposed to be the tall tripod) combined with a tripod bag assembles into an 81mm mortar. There could have been something else too, but I can't remember. I'll add more if I find them. -Seil

possibly a composite stock instead of wood?

Got most of the main scripting done. Next up is connecting the visual elements and building it into a module :D -Seil

Alright, well, please take note this is in severe pre-alpha status, so the background graphic and everything is yet to be finished. This is a teaser more or less, I've been designing an interface to be similar to the stock ArmA2 gear menu for IAWS. The following screen shots demonstrate what you would see with various aircraft for loadout control. Also note, if the pylon count for any given aircraft is incorrect in these shots, it's ok, the system isn't hardcoded with number of pylons per plane type, instead reads what the given plane has and then creates the correct number of slots to match the plane. These are just teaser shots to show what you might expect to see. http://seil.simcup.net/arma2/iaws_shots/a10.jpg http://seil.simcup.net/arma2/iaws_shots/av8b.jpg http://seil.simcup.net/arma2/iaws_shots/f15.jpg http://seil.simcup.net/arma2/iaws_shots/f16.jpg http://seil.simcup.net/arma2/iaws_shots/f18.jpg http://seil.simcup.net/arma2/iaws_shots/f22.jpg http://seil.simcup.net/arma2/iaws_shots/f35.jpg http://seil.simcup.net/arma2/iaws_shots/ef_typh.jpg At any given point the layout of the slots may be subject to change as the interface matures, just thought I'd tease everyone while more work is done. -Seil

Roger that, don't know what's going on with an interface for selecting loadouts right now, haven't seen anyone mention anything, I started work on one that should be pretty slick, should have something to preview tomorrow after another hour or two of work ;) -Seil

Very cool, I guess I'd like to play with it now :D I'm a programmer not modeler or artist, so I can't offer much help or test with the creation of aircraft side of things. Are the stock aircraft in ArmA2 going to be modified to support this as well then? -Seil Edit - I suppose we're waiting on BIS releasing the models for that.

Just a quick question, is there at this time or planned method to limiting what ordnance can be loaded onto each pylon? Meaning, there are 2 pylons on the tip of the wing of the A10 specifically for sidewinders, is there a way to keep those from being loaded with Mk82s and other payloads that will not fit nor are supported in real life by those positions? -Seil