BullseyeForAForehead

Not sure if you meant this post to be for everybody's 1.03 BETA observations or not, but I just finished trying out some of the changes, so I'm going to go ahead and contribute my observations anyway. I decided to put the pathfinding improvements to the test by loading a late-game campaign save, and seeing if I could take over the island of Magma using nothing but AI-controlled units (Walruses and Mantas). Overall, I would have to say it went much better than I would have expected pre-patch, but I did observe a few issues still remaining. I wanted to try to hit some worst-case scenarios, so I deliberately ignored the tricks I normally use to keep Walruses from having problems when under AI control. So for instance, I started by launching all four Walruses at once, and then instructing them to all go to the same point on the map, about 1/3 of the way inland from the shore. They probably would have been fine, except Walrus 9 was in medium armor while 6 through 8 were in heavy, which meant that Walrus 9 ended up trying to barge its way past the other three, throwing them into confusion to the point that one ended up getting bowled over. However, none of them got permanently stuck or significantly damaged, and ultimately they made it to their destinations without any major delays. For another worst-case scenario, I decided to try rearming, repairing and refueling three active Walruses at the same time. The refuel station was in one complex, and the rearm and repair stations were in the neighboring complex. They did alright, until I had two Walruses try to get from the refueling station to the repair station at the same time another Walrus was heading from the repair station to the refueling station. They ended up running into each other halfway, and seemed utterly intent on driving through eachother, banging their front ends, backing up, then moving forward to bang front ends again. I finally took one over and steered it aside so the other two could pass, and after that they were fine. For the most part, the Walruses did a good job of getting from point A to point B without any shenanigans. I only once caught a Walrus executing a 10-point turn at a bend in a road over an embankment -- it ended up doing a complete 180-degree turn that way before finally straightening itself out and continuing on its way. Considering how torturous the roads were, I'd consider only one Walrus getting confused through the course of an entire takeover not bad. Unrelated to pathfinding, I have noticed that it seems that when I instruct a Walrus to attack a target that is not immediately within view, it does not seem to want to move in order to find a usable firing position. For example, I wanted to see how the Walrus AI handled combat, so I took two Walruses and instructed them to attack the enemy sentry guns on a wall, but they refused to move. I gradually advanced them toward the complex and repeated the attack order, but they still would just stop and stare in the direction of the target. Finally, one got close enough that it started absorbing gatling fire, but it still would not fire back. I finally had to take over manually, and I took the gun out myself with one plasma blast. Mind you, those were the mishaps I observed during the entire takeover of the island, which was otherwise completely handled by the AI. I did not lose a single unit, although the high mountains did give my Mantas some trouble (I did have to manually intervene a few times to get them out of the line of fire faster than the AI normally can); and none of my Walruses became permanently stuck except for the one time that they refused to drive around each other. So I would have to say there is a marked improvement with the Walrus AI in the patch, although it is still a little weak when it comes to dealing with other Walruses on the road, and the refusal to maneuver when asked to attack an out-of-sight enemy was a little odd. Unrelated to Walruses, I also tried engaging the enemy carrier (it was trying to attack an island that was on the way to Magma for me), and I was also pleased with the difference. To begin with, its Walruses were deployed when I arrived, and they seemed to be going after the defenses on the beach -- that was new, since previously I only ever saw the enemy carrier's Walruses once, and they were alone in a place where they did not belong (the carrier was attacking a different island at the time). The enemy carrier stood its ground instead of immediately running away, and as I approached it actually turned to engage me. I never saw it launch its Mantas, although it was already damaged from our last encounter, so it is possible its lifts were out of order, or they may have been engaged attacking the island and unable to render assistance before I took the carrier out of action with shells and flak rounds. So it was definitely a more harrowing encounter than what I usually have had, which usually involves chasing the enemy carrier halfway across the archipelago until it finally gets cornered and has to fight back. (One minor suggestion: when the enemy carrier turns, it goes from still, to instantly turning at full rotation, to still again. It would look much more realistic if it had much lower angular acceleration, the way a huge, heavy, water-borne behemoth should.)

Considering the game's legacy, at first I thought it might be an old school cheat code, but if so I have not found a way to activate it. I tried typing it at the main screen, during the opening cinematic, and during the game, and I tried naming my profile after it, all to no avail. Of course, it's entirely possible that someone just wanted to memorialize someone named "Fido". Then again, someone in the thread on the Steam forum mentioned remembering seeing some reference to "fidonite" in the game... so the mystery may be deeper than it seems.

Actually, it's because when I first started playing CounterStrike, I got shot in the head a lot. Anyway, in case anyone has suspicions, I have no affiliation with Bohemia Interactive -- I'm just a guy who plays computer games and happens to know morse code -- so my handle has no bearing on it.