The AI....I'm at an absolute loss

[Dizzyfatpigeon]

I've only just bothered to play the campaign (vanilla) and I can honeslty say i've never seen more worse programmed and stupid AI in a game ever. I'ts giving me absolute cancer to try and play this game.

Me: MOVE 200M FRONT
Me: MOVE 200M FRONT
Me: MOVE F***** 200M FRONT
Me: INJURED
Me: INJURED
Me: INJURED

Me: REGROUP
Me: REGROUP
Me: REGROUP
AI: "Report position!"

ARE YOU F****** KIDDING ME?

Am I doing something wrong? Is my game broken? Is the campaign made for you to murder swathes of the enemy ALL BY YOURSELF?

Seriously guys i'm going to lose my **** I cannot understand how people play this campaign someone please tell me what i'm doing wrong?
maybe mods to fix AI that doesn't break the campaign idk?

[Wally_c64]

Been a fair while since I played the campaign. When playing with AI I tend to get them to stop and take cover whilst I take out the bulk of the enemy. If the AI aren't needed to finish a mission then don't worry too much if they get shot. Sometimes trying to keep them alive can be a pain I know.

[Cougarific]

Yah don't use the AI soldiers in any kind of offensive role. Set them up to guard your flanks and rear (the enemy AI *will* move to assault you from the flank and occasionally from the rear) and carry out the bulk of offensive ops on your own.

Also, instead of setting them to follow you, keep giving them move orders slightly ahead of your position as you move - otherwise they will shift into combat stance and move very slowly.

[Mirudes]

But the question still remains.
AI is a simulation of human intelligence, in a game that is simulating warfare.
So it is an important core function that is missing.


It is more than only a missing a core function: This bug becomes ridiculous in the game.
It destroys the illusion. It turns the game to a parody.


Path finding, driving behavior...all of these these problems have existed since Game 1.

[Talkie Toaster]

Originally posted by Mirudes:

But the question still remains.
AI is a simulation of human intelligence, in a game that is simulating warfare.
So it is an important core function that is missing.


It is more than only a missing a core function: This bug becomes ridiculous in the game.
It destroys the illusion. It turns the game to a parody.


Path finding, driving behavior...all of these these problems have existed since Game 1.

I was playing through it again tonight and it does actually seem even more broken than it ever used to be. The campaign is just not worth playing.

[Dizzyfatpigeon]

I was expecting to be torn to shreds but the general consensus appears to be that the AI are trash,
I don't even understand how BI's own mission makers managed to complete their own missions without it playing out perfectly.

On top of that my game bugged out and I lost all my Save data, for the second time, off to custom missions/mods I go.

[MAriskaDeville]

Guys, it has been like this forever in the arma series. Set your expectations accordingly.

[WireDawg]

The AI is complete trash in this game. My biggest complaint is that when they are in a vehicle they get stuck on all these 8 inch high stone walls that they have covered the entire map with. If they can't make the AI get around them correctly I don't understand why they don't either take the walls out completely or make them clippable so the AI goes through them. Seems like a simple fix to a decade old issue...

[jeger]

Originally posted by Mirudes:

But the question still remains.
AI is a simulation of human intelligence, in a game that is simulating warfare.
So it is an important core function that is missing.


It is more than only a missing a core function: This bug becomes ridiculous in the game.
It destroys the illusion. It turns the game to a parody.


Path finding, driving behavior...all of these these problems have existed since Game 1.

As for the path finding, maybe read the news on the game, and there's nothing stopping you from running an AI mod.

[WireDawg]

Originally posted by i am moofin:

Originally posted by Mirudes:

But the question still remains.
AI is a simulation of human intelligence, in a game that is simulating warfare.
So it is an important core function that is missing.


It is more than only a missing a core function: This bug becomes ridiculous in the game.
It destroys the illusion. It turns the game to a parody.


Path finding, driving behavior...all of these these problems have existed since Game 1.

As for the path finding, maybe read the news on the game, and there's nothing stopping you from running an AI mod.

The main point is you shouldn't have to run "mods" to fix someone elses ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥.

[Jaypinguin]

Originally posted by gameplayer13131:

Friendly AI are rather stupid in Arma in terms of reaction to fire, taking complex orders and driving. Last night I was playing a scenario called Antistasi (which I highly recommend) and had my AI teamate supporting me by mortor fire, I was pinned down ordering him to fire at a location and he ignored me. In this scenario it gives you the option to switch to a AI for 60 seconds so I did that, fired the shells where I wanted them and returned to my guy and the AI controling my guy got me killed by running to the enemy with no cover. Its frustrating but the enemy AI seems smart when they kill me.

I agree antistasi is a great mission and more people should try it. But your example of antistasi, the AI can be "trained" and upgraded in their skill/abilites by training them at HQ. Thus making them better fighters. So, you must take that into consideration.

For driving, I usually command a tank and have AI driving and gunner. They do a decent job in their roles. What I do is: When traveling through the map in tanks, I set the AI to safe mode, They follow almost all roads and are pretty decent at doing so. When I get closer to the AO, I tell them to be aware. And finally when I am very close to the AO, I set them to combat stance.
Also, some people are not aware of this, but when commanding a battle tank with AI, you MUST order the gunner to fire each round of the tank's main cannon. I've come across some people who did not know that and talked badly about the AI without knowing.

But overall, yes, the AI does need extensive work. The devs are aware of this and they are working on it as they have metioned it in one of their recent sitreps I believe. You guys also have to remember that Building and optimizing AI is very difficult. Creating a balanced AI and an AI that has a "mind" of its own where it doesn't need user scripts to behave in game is indeed very difficult stuff. I do not envy those who must develop artificial intellegence.

As for infantry play, I usually play ARMA SP (with ai team), similar to XCOM. I survey the surrounding, set my teamates in good postions, mark enemies for them to engage, and then let them open fire / engage. If I need to, I'll flank while they lay fire. It works for me.

[jester]

Originally posted by Mirudes:

But the question still remains.
AI is a simulation of human intelligence, in a game that is simulating warfare.
So it is an important core function that is missing.


It is more than only a missing a core function: This bug becomes ridiculous in the game.
It destroys the illusion. It turns the game to a parody.


Path finding, driving behavior...all of these these problems have existed since Game 1.

It's part of a bigger question. AI has always been a bottleneck in gaming in general. There's only so much we can do to make AI units intelligent and "human-like". There are some mods that make it a bit easier to use AI units in your squad, but there are still some underlying problems that need solving at the engine level.

I will say that if you stick with it and really make an effort to learn the limits of the AI and what they are capable of doing, it's much easier to trust them to do certain things and it makes it feel a bit better. It's no 100% fix, but it's a handful of bandaids.

[Maxwell Boltzman Graph]

The arma campaigns are riddled with issues. No where even close to as interesting as the arma 2 missions. So your mistake for playing the arma missions bohemia extensivly dropped the ball with apex single player my mission led me strait to an emmpty village very very poor on their behalf.

I think you have a 10-25% issue with YOU and a 75% issue with the programming. You didnt mention what state you put your ai in COMBAT,ALERT, SAFE these make a huge differnce in AI reaction. Unfourtunatly those options also do not really mean what you think it does. Combat means they will generally scope out a position before they move which can take forever, alert will move somewhat faster and safe they generally will sprint right to the place you point strait down the line and get killed. It is a shame that asr and bcombat increses the playability of the ai to such a degree that bohemia just is not addressing. The code that those mods put in is not neccisrarly rocket science after opeinging it up and looking at it its just common sense.

Litterally the best reacting AI that did what you needed them to all the time was on ps3 operation flashpoint dragon rising, i dont know how they did it but you could really move your squad like chess peices and just totally wreck the multiplayers that thought they would rambo that crap.

Honestly bohemia needs to sink a salary into the AI both vehicle and troop operations, then i think the thing that would make the game soar would be to encorporate a voice activation on the commands. the tech is there no reaosn to not use it really. imagine just telling your ai squad what to do. every thing is key by number you would only need to say numbers like unit 1 read your screen and see the options. Unit 1, seven, seven. Which would be if you read your screen unit 1 selected, 7 to open combat menu and 7 to stay crouched.

[Toast]

The AI isn't going to change at this point, despite whatever news says otherwise. If they actually had an idea about how to improve it, they would. AI is the hardest thing to code in games, generally, and after 3 years of working on it, if it hasn't improved yet, it won't. Not on this engine at least.

[BENN-EE5]

AI has been improved but not the fundamental ways of how it works and operations. The devs made some good fine tuning when it comes to certain behaviors, like how it reacts under fire etc. Compared to other games, the AI in ArmA 3 has to deal with more things which are way more complex as in other games. Just remember the huge terrain, weapons vehicles etc.

[cerebus23]

They want to force everyone into pro multiplayer severs and that is why the AI has always been ass in arma :P.

The sniper accurate mounted guns in arma 2 with insane range of engagement.....i REALLY hated these things.

The AI ability to get lost in arma 2 and 3.

The lack of self preservation, really enemy opens fire and they wil stand in the open and get killed.

The fact that enemy AI can see through grass, bushes and etc np even when you have zero los on them.

Friendly AI opening fire unless you specifically tell them to hold fire at ranges where they are just wasting ammo.

Ennemy AI being aggroed when you are "sneaking" into range. And they all respond instanly not one or two guys alerting the rest but everyone will know instantly where you are and begin fire.

Now there are player mods that have improved or fixed these issues in arma 2 and etc, but really they could not you know fix this stuff in house? Or hell hire some of the AI modders out of comminity, or just hire new coders for the AI period.

I have to think it is on purpose at this point that they intentionally make the AI so damn awful. Or the community modders have made them lazy as hell, not unlike the bethesda community modders that fix alot of the slop and broken crap in bethesda games that bethesda never bothers to fix.

Other games have done pretty damn decent ai, metal gear 5 has pretty damn good ai, crysis had good open world ai (aside from the psychic helicopters). It is doable.