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The effect of weapon on AI accuracy by nkenny Abstract* Testing the effect of weapon on AI accuracy. Introduction The weapon an AI soldier is equipped with greatly affects killing power. Even when the class of weapon is nominally the same, weapon configuration plays enormous part. This is especially evident when similar weapons from different mods are used together. To explore the effect of weapon on AI killing power I built an experimental suite. Experiment The test was conducted while running only CBA, CUP Weapons, RHS Russian Armed Forces and NIArms. The player profile was newly created and no AI skill tweaks were made. Description I placed a single shooter on flat terrain, back turned towards a four man group of enemies. The four man team is concealed from the shooter (his back is turned). Each soldier is identically equipped with no body armour or helmet or weapon. After five seconds the shooter is given a weapon and given perfect information about the enemy. This results in him turning and engaging the enemy. The targets are spaced at two meter intervals and the test was run on a 100m and 200m range (normal combat engagement ranges). Shooter and targets were forced to remain static and remain in a standing position. My point of comparison was the AKM rifle. Ubiquitous in enemy hands and mod packs alike. I provide data for the modern MX rifle with a HAMR RCO as a frame of reference. The exercise is over once three minutes has passed, the shooter has expended all ammunition, or all targets are dead. Measurements are printed on screen and recorded on the clipboard. I paste that information into a document. Measurements I ran the exercise six times with each weapon. While not enough for statistical evaluation, I nonetheless deemed it sufficient to get a sense of the performance characteristics of each weapon. - Hits, each bullet that impacts a target. - Shots fired, maximum is 6 magazines: 180 rounds. - Accuracy, hits divided by shots fired. - Time, time in minutes and seconds. Record After each round I recorded weapon class name, Accuracy, (hits / shots fired) and time. Each measurement is averaged (in red). Expectations Mod configuration will vary somewhat. With CUP weapons being more accurate than RHS counterparts. Data @ 100 Meters Data @ 200 Meters Findings @100 Meters At close range the vanilla AKM and CUP AKM are closely matched. With a slight edge to the vanilla gun. RHS weapons are considerably less accurate than all other counterparts and require four times the amount of time and rounds fired for similar effect. The numbers for the NIArms AKM belie their effect on target. Toadie's AK tended to fire in bursts, but with a highly accurate first shot. In effect the gun killed with the first shot, but burned off a few rounds into the air-- wasting time and bullets. @200 Meters At mid range the differences between the weapons become evident. CUP weapons are almost twice as effective as their vanilla counterpart. RHS weapons are considerably less accurate than the others. Which is not to say ineffective. Rate of fire is high and spread provides greater coverage-- area of fire-- than the other counterparts. As for NIArms: the rifle comparatively is laser accurate, out shooting all other alternatives. Contrasted to RHS it provides almost eight times more killing potential. It even compares favourably to the vanilla MX with a optic. Conclusion Not all AKMs are created equal. The killing potential of each gun varies wildly from mod to mod. The most deadly close quarters AK is the vanilla, while in most combat ranges, the NIArms gun outperforms all other alternatives. One obvious take away is that there are radical differences of capability with two presumably identical weapon systems. This is one reason why I would advice consistency in mod sets. Another is that this vast difference in capability need not match the players performance, expectations and experience, with the same weapon system. In the case of the AKM, I believe most players find them very similar-- aside from minor differences in sight picture and sound. In fact to test that very thing I used the same suite to record my own times. I won't post the results here, but they were largely similar across mods. The test itself remains neutral to the intended design intention of the style of configuration each mod adopts. The comparable lack of accuracy of RHS weapons need not be read as a flaw. There are arguments both from the perspective of realism and game play to prefer less accurate weapons. - Firstly, the sort of 'white room' engagement against a non-responsive, non-moving target is hardly applicable. Handling performance on sterile ranges fail to convey the stress of combat shooting. Most studies into the effect of combat on marksmanship show a massive decrease in effective accuracy. RHS weapons simulate combat shooting, rather than target plinking. - Secondly, more shots fired and fewer one-shot-kills, is generally good for game play. At 100 meters vanilla, CUP and NIArms equipped soldiers can eliminate an inattentive fire team in less than 10 seconds. While demanding some caution is good, such a quick end also means a quick end to the session for the player in question. - Thirdly, RHS comes with an entire dimension of weapons. Accuracy comes with modern quality. A RHS M4A1 is more accurate than an AKM. So is a an AK74. See references. Many communities depress AI accuracy values. The considerable accuracy of CUP and NIArms weapons need not be a flaw. Follow the links in the references and one can see the extreme degradation of accuracy based suppression levels. The considerable default accuracy of vanilla weapons, the presence of multiple stances, all are suggestive of a very specific type of gameplay. Soldiers should be cautious and reveal their positions only momentary. Suppressive fire is very effective. It is more important to suppress all dangerous enemies than it is to pursue time consuming killing shots! When the AI is accused of laser accuracy, it will in some cases be due to failure to adequately suppress-- through fire superiority-- the enemy position. Finally, I suspect, particularly in regards to the user made modifications there are considerably differences. Test are done in different AI setting ecologies-- tweaking AI skill is easily (if somewhat obtusely) done. If I shall brave a conjecture I expect CUP weapons, being added more along open source model will show greater variance in configuration. NIArms weapons are developed with an eye towards delivering an uncompromising experience for the shooter. The AI comes much later. All of this means that mod makers and mission designers must pay attention to the source of the weapons given to the AI. Future tests 1. The same platform can easily be used to test other weapons or family of weapons 2. In the future I would like to test ranges out to 300 and 400 meters** References - Original thread on nopryl.no, further numbers, weapons and experiments are here - Experimental mission, links to mission for your own testing -k * Dear mods: Feel free to move this thread. While relevant to mission makers and mod developers equally. It seems sufficiently meta to concern general players, but it is not pointed enough to belong to the mod discussion forum. ** My initial run with standing RHS weapons yielded one hit across 180 rounds. In other words. If faced by a lone, standing gunman armed with a RHS AKM. At 300+ meters you might as well remain stationary and standing yourself.