Drumheller

The AI in ArmA can be a great asset or a horrible frustration. If you know how to utilize it properly and well, you will really open up a side of ArmA that will enhance your gameplay experience for years to come. Learning to control that AI, however, can be pretty intimidating. Even this introduction video is 40 min long, but it's broken into segments for each section and is hopefully easy to follow, learn, and understand. It should help you begin to understand the expanse of what you can do with the AI in ArmA. This first AI control video is a little long and drawn out, but I go over almost every command in every menu that you can give to AI. It's a good fundamental to know everything that the AI, and more importantly, yourself, are capable of doing while utilizing AI. Skip to the last 3 minutes to see me put it all together using Voice Commands instead of keyboard shortcuts. Voice Activated Commands: http://www.dwvac.com (Many ArmA custom configs available) 4:23 Menu 1 - "Move" - Movement 8:25 Menu 2 - "Engage" - Targeting 10:28 Menu 3 - "Target" - Fire Modes, Engagment, Facing 14:38 Menu 4 - "Mount" - Vehicles, Turrets, Static Weapons 18:22 Menu 5 - "Status" - Almost never used - Report Status 19:02 Menu 6 - "Action" - Used for equipment/looting ammo and weapons and directing your medic to heal the nearest target. You can also make AI open doors, but you never know which door you're telling them to open 24:19 Menu 7 - "Combat Mode" - Very useful - Set Combat State and Stance 29:11 Menu 8 - "Formation" - Set Formation(sets for whole squad, not just selected individuals) 31:13 Menu 9 - "Assign" - Assign units to teams and select the teams. 33:05 Menu 0 - "Reply" - Communication - Access radio commands and call for in-mission support 34:03 - Conclusion and Voice Command Demonstration -Mods Used in this video: CAF: http://www.armaholic.com/page.php?id=19420 SABRE US Marines: http://www.armaholic.com/page.php?id=19321 Deadfast 3rd Person View: http://www.armaholic.com/page.php?id=19328 Playthrough of a mission using much of the things I taught in the tutorial:

Hey guys, I have some questions regarding GAIA: I have a mission that doesn't have the GAIA module down, only the MCC Settings module and AGM Medical. No other modules. For this mission, whenever I spawn AI, they have the (G) behind their name. This means that they've been assigned to GAIA, right? We had the GAIA module down, but had to remove it because GAIA continuously assigns waypoints to units even after they've been given move orders by the Zeus controller. This is driving my unit's ZEUS controllers insane. We removed the module that gives AI to GAIA, but this is still happening with every unit spawned via MCC. Are all MCC units spawned to GAIA regardless of all else now? Are we doing something wrong? We need to be able to spawn units and groups without GAIA giving them orders. Here's the mission file: https://www.dropbox.com/s/2cnzcjbcrxrva41/_506th_standdown_01_v1.Takistan.pbo?dl=0

Argh. That brings us back to the crux of the issue, which is being able to set AI skills for Zeus. The missions my unit does are made 100% by an MCC/Zeus controller and most controllers prefer to spawn units via ZEUS on a dedicated server. So you're saying the script won't work if a player is spawning the AI via Zeus because Zeus takes the controller's AI settings when spawning units? This is so damn frustrating. I guess I'll try the script out when I get the chance and report back. Hopefully you're right since the AI are supposed to be assigned to the server once they are placed down and the script affects AI that the server controls, right?

Meiestrix how would I execute that script on my server/mission? I'm pretty bad with scripts. I just name the script "AI.sqf" and in the mission init I execute it? Do you know how it would effect a ~60 man server with ~50-100 AI at any given time? Would those skill settings apply to all AI including those spawned with MCC and Zeus throughout the mission?

I was afraid of something like that. I'm pretty sure FFIS got around this somehow. All the AI in FFIS would engage out to long distances IIRC. Maybe I was just using enemies with vanilla weapons while I was running with FFIS. I don't know if it's worth the amount of effort you'd have to put into it.

Thanks for the response spirit :) An MCC setting somewhere would be 100% just as good. I use MCC and GAIA together so I more or less consider them the same thing. I look forward to future updates!

I'm having this same exact issue. It seems that units placed in a server with Zeus don't follow any sort of skill level set by mods, be it ASR, MCC, ZEU, etc. This is extremely frustrating when trying to do a Zeus mission with customized AI. I'm specifically referring to AI Accuracy. In all custom mods it has been felt over the past ~5 years of testing that 20-22% AI accuracy is idea for good gameplay, but Zeus overrides these settings. It would be fantastic if there was a way to set ZEUS AI skill levels across the board.

Hey shay and team! I'm back to using MCC! I have a couple of requests: In the MCC module, can you add 20% skill under the AI skill settings for aiming? After years of testing, a lot of us have come to the conclusion that 20-22% is all around the best aiming skill for ArmA AI. Additionally, do you know if it would be possible to write into GAIA something that will extend the range of AI? I made a similar request in the RHS thread. Essentially AI won't engage past ~400m on a lot of weapons and that leads to just a shooting gallery with a lot of AI. There are mods that fix this like VTS Duckhunt, but that's only for vanilla weapons. FFIS was real good about this, but it hasn't been updated in a long time :( Is that something you think you could do via GAIA or some GAIA settings? That would be fantastic. Love, Jester <3 XOXO

Hey guys! I have another request/question: I did my first official unit mission with RHS: Escalation tonight. It was fantastic! We encountered an issue though - the AI won't reliably engage at mid-long ranges(500-800m). This just resulted in a lot of sitting back and killing the enemy without repercussion. Is there any chance of getting their weapons ranges extended by a bit. I've used mods such as VTS_duckhunt and FFIS before, but FFIS is out of date and VTS only works on vanilla weapons. Those mods pushed rifles and LMGs out to ~650-800m, marksman rifles to ~1000m, and machineguns to 1000-1100 meters. Would there be any possibility of getting the weapon ranges extended out a bit, even possibly in an extra, optional config?

I know for sure the US Army uses it. Capt Mike Durant talks about training on it in the book Company of Heroes http://www.guncopter.com/mh-60-dap/ Thanks for the response :)

Hey guys I'd like to make a request. Is there any chance of getting an AH-60 Blackhawk/Battle Hawk DAP(basically a Blackhawk Gunship)? http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/systems/aircraft/ah-60l.htm

Amazing new stuff! I have a couple of bug reports(may have already been reported): -The cover system will not work unless the cover UI system is also enabled for me -When in High Prone(sitting shooting position)... well a video is worth 1000 pictures:

Feedback from my unit from today(I did not write these): -The coloring of the plate carriers and the MARPAT seems to be off(should be coyote tan but have a slight green tint) -The weapons have good looking models and nice sounds, but there are a few (M249, M240) that you cannot attach optics to -Also had the SMAW turn invisible when loading a rocket. -Adjusting the zeroing of the weapon actually changed the height of the iron sights, which was a nice touch.

Great map! Bug Report: I just want to let you know, the large hotel in Roenne is not quite put together/aligned properly. There are gaps in the walls and floors where the building sections are just a little off from each other.

Updates forced through on steam in a game that is so heavily reliant on mods is a disaster. The last big update broke many things. So many things we don't even know how many yet. This wouldn't have been a problem in ArmA 2. In A2, when an update went through, players and units could simply choose to not update and wait a few weeks to see how the update was working and make sure all the mods they used were properly updated. In A3, what we have instead is fairly consistent updates being pushed through regardless of steam settings, and no way to roll back. The setting of "do not update this game" on steam absolutely does not work, and never has for any game. Updates force themselves through all the time regardless of settings. This post is to beg for BI to look into something on steam that will prevent this from happening. Preferably both a way to stop updates from happening, and the ability to roll back updates if they do happen. I cannot imagine that my unit is the only one that suffers from these issues. These constant updates being pushed through regardless of our desire is unhealthy in the long-term for units in ArmA that rely on mods(almost every unit in ArmA).

Hey Lato, Cool mission! I played through it for a couple hours and I have a couple points of feedback/questions: -The humanitarian aid vehicle - which vehicle is it? It's not very clear. I took the civilian off-road truck but that wasn't the correct vehicle. Perhaps some clarification in-mission as to exactly which vehicle it is(or if it's already clarified in-game tell me that I'm a moron and where to look). -Intel - I gathered enough intel to discover that the rebel leader was somewhere near Panachori(far outside the conflict zone) and I went to Panachori and searched for around an hour. I searched all the way from the northern hills down to the coast before giving up. Do I have to gather more intel to get a more specific location kind of like in insurgency where the more briefcases you pick up the closer you get to the cache location? I don't know if you already do this, but maybe a vehicle or two outside with some defenses or a patrol defending the guy? I never found him so I don't actually know if he's in a building by himself hiding or you already have something like this in place, and I just didn't see it. Overall the mission is really cool. I absolutely LOVE the transport system. It's MUCH better and intuitive than a lot that I've seen in ArmA in the past, and the helo actually lands near to where you tell him to land, even if he's under fire! edit: I see in your above post that you already took care of the aid truck issue with your update 2 days ago!

Oh man I haven't used this since the first video I made and I just used it today and the updates are AMAZING! I did notice one thing, however - Once you leave GT mode, the AI will no longer self-adjust stance, I have to manually order them which stance to go into(which I do with voice commands). But then once I go back into GT mode, unless they're in "copy my stance" stance, they won't adjust stance in GT mode.

Is standard FFIS still working fine for everyone?

Seems neat. Definitely something I've needed many times in the past.

This is really cool. I missed it when you first posted it up. Good work!

edit: Nevermind, we apparently are still running an old version with improper zeroing.

yay!!

This is all fine and dandy, but can we get a fix for the 3d optics "swaying" completely off screen before this goes into effect? edit: Having read the full oprep and done some testing, I have the following feedback/criticism: In the oprep is the following statement: While I agree with this, I think there is a massive breakdown between this inertia simulation and the recoil simulation in game. This same standard is not evenly applied across different weapon handling simulations. In game, all weapon recoil goes "up", which is already unrealistic. Due to multiple reasons - training, knowledge of firearms handling, muscle memory, etc - recoil in real life doesn't just go up and stay there. Whether in single-fire mode or in automatic-fire mode, trained, experienced shooters are able to, and capable of, handling recoil. When you fire a weapon, your weapon sights should end roughly where your aim started regardless of the amount of upwards recoil the weapon itself has, you automatically(muscle memory) pull the weapon back down. This is not simulated in ArmA 3. When you fire a weapon in A3, your weapon recoils up and simply stays there. Now above, you state that heavier/larger weapons have different handling characteristics, which is absolutely true. A heavier weapon firing the same round(in this instance we'll use the 6.5mm from in-game) should have -less- upwards recoil than it's lighter counterpart. Let's take the MX Rifle vs the MK200 LMG in game. They both fire the same round. The MK200 is heavier by a large factor, yet the Mk200 has -more- upwards recoil than the MX rifle, which weighs less. An easy real life comparison would be a soldier firing an M4a1 on full-auto vs an M249 SAW on full auto. Both soldiers will be able to control their upwards recoil, but the SAW gunner has to apply almost no effort to doing so because the weight of the weapon itself almost completely eliminates upwards recoil. My whole point here is that you are talking about how different weapons handle differently and trying to apply a realistic approach to weapon movement while in-game, but not applying the same approach to other parts weapons simulation(recoil). I feel that these things aren't being evenly considered or applied across the board. Additionally, it seems as though you're adding this mechanic in that is going to make weapons handling harder(yes more realistic, but harder) overall, but without first adding in the one thing that almost completely negates these inertia changes and recoil handling, which is weapon resting/bracing on various surfaces and bipods.

Did the last update break FFIS and start to cause server crashes? My unit is experiencing server crashes every time AI is engaged and we THINK it's FFIS, but we haven't been able to do a full-scale test again since the last crash, but if it's FFIS causing the big issue it would be a load of pain off our shoulders.

This problem was gone for me for a long time, but has recently re-reared it's head. After ~45 min I get a couple seconds of video lag, then my frames while turning drop to single-digits, but while not moving at all, are fine.