A New AI for a new year

Hello everyone, as you may know Ive been working on a new AI system and after a bit of tweaking I am ready to release something for you all to try and then give feedback on.

http://fbe.am/i95
Download the file above.

Installation :
If you have any AI mods installed already, backup the AI and DISPERSIONSYSTEM folders inside the DATA_WIN folder of DR's installation. Once you have backed up these folders, delete them.
Unzip the attached file into the DATA_WIN folder inside your DR installation.


Changes (By far not a complete list)

Morale has been modified to give the AI a much more aggressive fighting stance overall. They are much more willing to push forward, and require alot more sustained fire to break them. Morale recovers quickly and effective use of suppression is absolutely key to stopping advances of large forces.
The odd kill here and there will not break a groups morale anymore.
I have found they are much more willing to flank and advance on enemy positions now unless the enemy brings alot of firepower to bare.

AI weapon handling has been simplified into the following categories :

Missile (AT4, SMAW, Queen Bee)
Fantastic against Vehicles, Usable vs Air and Infantry
36m-1400m prefer long range
Use in the open with Line of Fire

Grenade Launcher (M32, Underslung on Assault Rifles)
Great against Infantry and Jeeps, Usable vs Vehicles
36-400m prefer long range
Use in the open, Line of Fire optional

Heavy Sniper (M99, M107, M1014, M2000)
Fantastic against Infantry and Jeeps, Usable vs Vehicles and Air
16m-1600m prefer long range
Prefer Cover, Line of Fore optional

Light Sniper (M21, QBU88, M16m, M4A1m, QBZ95m, Type81m, MK17m, MK16m)
Fantastic against Infantry, Usable vs Jeeps and Air
16m-900m prefer long range
Prefer Cover, Prefer Line of Sight

Heavy Machine Gun (MK48, Type 67-II)
Fantastic against Infantry and Jeeps, Usable vs Vehicles and Air
16m-600m prefer long range
Prefer Cover, Prefer Line of Sight

Light Machine Gun (M249, QBB95)
Fantastic against Infantry and Jeeps, Usable vs Air
1m-400m any range
Prefer Cover, Prefer Line of Sight

Fully Automatic Assault Rifle (M4A1, MK16, MK17, QBZ95 and Type81)
Fantastic against Infantry, Usable vs Jeeps and Air
1m-400m any range
Any situation, Prefer Line of Sight

Burst Fire Assault Rifle (M16)
Fantastic against Infantry, Usable vs Jeeps and Air
1m-400m prefer long range
Prefer Cover, Prefer Line of Sight

Sub Machine Gun (MP5, QCQ05)
Great against Infantry, Usable vs Jeeps
1m-144m any range
Any situation, require Line of Sight

Pistol (MEU Soc, QSZ92)
Okay against Infantry
1m-64m prefer short range
Any situation, requires Line of Sight

I will continue with the changes as I have time, but please remember that this is not finished, I have not touched mounted weapons yet (they are the same as UAI2011)

Thanks Templar, I'll be giving this a good run I think. I wonder how my new mission will fair now???

hey good seeing something new from Templar. Added it to my TemplarGFX section on Mediafire HERE.
(removed due to bad links) NFMZ1

NFMZ1 your Seawolves link sent me to a blank page, any chance you can look at that for us please mate??

Anyone having trouble with the ai not calling out targets also no sound from any of the characters ....I have sound for the weapons and explosions , vehicles but no sound for the rest....I tested to see if it is the new ai doing this and it is thanks

could be having the same issue here myself. I'm testing at the moment, I just played Steel Diamond, I did see a notable differnece in the way the PLA entered the fight and they certainly made it hard for me to defeat them in some places, for the first time I got whooped big time at the first mortar line.

I know I put a blockCommandReportFeedback order in this mission at one point but I think I took it back out(edit) after I re-released it.

I also tried my newest mission I'm still working on and that doesn't have the order in. So I think you could be right on that mate. Any Ideas Temp?

Not sure but the whole Forum is done actually. Show eventually be back up. Ill submit a ticket. Thanks for the heads up.

Hmm, I thought that was just the CQB template I was using to test in.

I adjusted the feedback queues to increase the memory of the AI units, but I am guessing that this has quashed speech somehow.

The AI itself works fine, and to be honest I didn't see any changes increasing feedback so I will reduce it again tonight.

I am very interested to hear your thoughts on the AI for those who have tried it. The direction I have taken this time around is significantly different to last time!

mdog, did you notice any stupid behavior? Before the final tweak to Morale I did find the AI were getting too close to each other, though I think I have fixed that.

I've found a few good moments in the fighting, notably the little checkpoint at the start of Steel Diamond, I really had to fight for that one. I do use a random spawn module so hopefully at some point I'll get a shed load more pla than I did the last time around and see some hard ass fighting going on.

No mad behaviour as yet, more testing on other stuff to do yet, but I'll see if I notice anything.

cheers

I have found the issue that is stopping the speech from happening. Unfortunately I forgot to bring the files into work. so I will have to update them this afternoon.

It seems the bullet sensor somehow controls speech

Haven't tried it yet, I'ma wait for the newest version

Hi Everyone!

Sorry about taking so long to get a second update out!

I have temporarily disabled the weapontargetselection as the changes I made in the last version made them terrible with AT weapons, which I have yet to find a solution for. I think I will have to redo the file from scratch again!

This version has what I feel is a fantastic morale setup. They fall back easily enough, but recover quickly and regroup.
Some modifications have also been made to the aiconfig file which improves grouping and data sharing between units. This has also fixed the voice issue with the last version

Here is the new file :
http://fbe.am/ipB
Uncompress into your data_win folder.

You will need to also remove or rename the current weapontargetselectiongenerated.xml file in data_win\ai\globalknowledge\


This is a test MSSN mission I am working on to brush up my LUA skills and get me back into programming for OFDR.
You do not need to use this, I just thought I might as well upload this too, so you all know what I have been doing over the last week and a bit.
Thanks to this mission I have been able to tweak the morale and aiconfig file considerably with great results. It quickly offers up highly dynamic battles that can be easily moved around the island.
http://fbe.am/ipC


A member of the community here asked me for the E2W MSSN file, but rather than handing that out (as its buggy as!) I thought I would create a new push system based on the idea of E2W without the restrictions of requiring a bunch of locations and tables.

to relocate the battle just move the starting point and the player to the new location. I would advise you keep them the same distance apart as they are right now, so that when you reach the battle, it is just starting.

The idea is to simply push the enemy backwards. Starting with a west push direction, it will shift around as the battle progresses. For the moment, there is a big silo spawned where the centre of the battle location is to make it easy to figure out where to go. just look for the big floating thing in the sky!

Some cool features of this MSSN :

Mission runs in rounds, which last 2 minutes each. At the end of each round, the battle point and push directions are altered according to the result of the last round.

At the beginning of each round both sides are allowed to spend credits on re-inforcements. Credits are gained by Hitting, Wounding, Killing, Suppressing or Pinning a unit, along with Damaging or Destroying a vehicle.
Purchased units are placed into a cart, which is then used to spawn units into the world. only a small number of units can be brought in per round, and the cart can only hold a certain number of units itself. This gives heaps of variation to the battles that unfold, as an expensive vehicle may be purchased, but not spawned that round due to bad luck (the vehicle is still purchased, and will likely come in next round)

AI actions have been enhanced much like in IW giving additional smart choices to there actions, like grouping together, falling back from vehicles, prioritizing targets for AA and AT and controlling vehicles for better action (the vehicle bit is still WIP, so it doesnt always work properly. If a vehicle doesnt do anything, just wait, once its situation changes it will do something!)

it just keeps going! At the moment there is no end to the mission, however you may get to the point where the other side (or yours!) has no credits, no cart items and nothing on map. This is where the game will end.

Some issues with the AI mod :
Running through its paces with the default weapontargetselectiongenerated has revealed the following things that must be improved :
Vehicle weapon accuracy needs to be reduced so they arent so darn dangerous
AA use needs to be reduced to make Helicopters a little more useful. This is to combat the fact that flares dont work
Sniper accuracy needs to be reduced
MG engagement distance needs to be increased
AT accuracy needs to be increased
Sound based detection needs to be reduced
a few other bits and bobs not worth mentioning

ok installed and testing with TES and so far so good. I will need some help because the Ai keep seeking me out and kicking my ass lmao

appreciate the update and understand about E2W - simply was having issues loading and running the two earlier MSSN versions and thought I was missing something. Look forward to playing with this AI update.

I've found that the AI is far more likely to drive continuously into trees and barriers using the new AI.

I've also watched them execute a wounded Chinese with a pistol. That was awesome. lol

The Ai still need some work when comes to close quarters. I would like to see better reaction when they enter a building. Also I think they should use cover a little bit better I set a quick fire fight up where pla are patrolling the airport and some are in the buildings. Then I have spec ops moving in from the beach to take care of business and they didnt even go prone when they saw the enemy and also little like to add I had about maybe 15 pla and one assault team of US......I did see when I was killed that my 2 man team I made for myself they pinned down a sniper in the tower and moved in on the building then took him out and proceed to assault the building that was cool..So I have seen some ups and downs here. What have you guys seen...By the way I dont play Arma 3 because I cant run it but heard the ai is still crappy so DR is a good game still when it comes to ai wise...

HomerPepsi wrote:I've found that the AI is far more likely to drive continuously into trees and barriers using the new AI.

I've also watched them execute a wounded Chinese with a pistol. That was awesome. lol

I would love to have seen that
I found the PLA will push forward and move position more readily which i like alot. They will try and flank you and use grenades more. The snipers are way to deadly though, and the mounted machinegunners are lethal. I like the new settings but the accuracey is way to high, dont know if you've adjusted the speech settings in anyway but they shout out more random stuff aswell which i like.To test the AI and see any difference I play the Codemasters DLC Fire Team Engagements and see how the game pans out, as everyone has probablly played them to death and knows how the stock AI will react, all I can say is look out. As HomerPepsi said the pathfinding could use a little work also, other than that so far much better AI nice work.
Maybe something to think about, as the PLA are alot braver and deadly could we triple the bleed out time might lead to some heroic saves, as of now no one dare move in a firefight

anyone having trouble with the ai in close quarters combat?

I have noticed that they take a little bit to notice me up close and personal. But apart from that not much else. Can you elaborate on your experience in close quarters other wise we have nothing to compare it too.

well for example I made quick mission in a urban area. I put some pla in side the houses and some outside then I played the mission out with only 3 members on my team and took the town but, when we assaulted the houses they would enter but not shoot pla standing in front of them and that was very frustrating to watch. Another thing I have been seeing is the the ai are not taking cover that much during firefights. I tried to talk to templar about this, but him and I are on to different sides of the world. so that been a bit hard to talk about the changes.....So the changes that I see that need to be made are ...........close quarters......
.......... taking cover............
Other than that its looking good compared to what we had before. What do you guys think???????????

Unfortunately when it comes to stuff inside buildings, there is not much that can be done to fix it. The issue with buildings is that the code that the AI use to enter and move around in a building is terribly flawed. Notice how you can walk right through people when inside a building? Notice how half the time they get stuck at the door?

I have never been able to find out how to improve in-building AI actions unfortunately


With regards to taking cover, I think I need to modify the morale values so that FULL and LOWERING states are not so far apart, when morale is full, the AI do not really do any defensive stuff, such as taking cover. this could be why they seem to take cover less.

The driving into stuff continually by AI is just an issue with the game in general, in the current release, there is no modifications to how AI use vehicles (that will come later however)

I have been making slight changes at home, so I will take on-board this latest feedback and make a few more changes then release a new version including a redone weapontargetselectiongenerated.xml

ok sounds good Templar

Ok guys after test numbers her on the morale I have found some that may amaze you.....What I found is is more prone shooting and using cover and flanking tactics....They also use grenades at right time and used suppresson right and leap frog to target area. I made a quick mission and with the US moving in on the fuel station and the pla patrolling the station with snipers and what I saw was when I had the ai crouching to go in, an telling them on the waypoint to use ai controlled movement they leap frog to the fuel station and engaged pla patrol and moved into the station and used cover every move they made to flank the pla inside that ran back in... so with out further with do here it is NOTE Im still testing but who nos this may work for you guys...

Code:

<morale>
  <!--regeneration rate - morale recovery points per second-->
  <property name="regeneration_rate"        value="15" />
  <!--hold time - after a negative morale won't recover for x seconds-->
  <property name="hold_time"                value="5" />
  <!--experience multipliers - percentage modifiers to absolute morale values, 0 is no effect-->
  <!---0.25 changes a +10 modifier to +7.5 and a -10 modifier to -12.5 -->
  <!--+0.25 changes a +10 modifier to +12.5 and a -10 modifier to -7.5 -->
  <property name="green_modifier"          value="-5.0" />
  <property name="regular_modifier"        value="0"    />
  <property name="veteran_modifier"        value="2.5"  />
  <property name="elite_modifier"          value="5.0"  />
  <!--Morale state bands - minimum value for each state-->
  <!--State_Max is the absolute limit and not a state in its own right-->
  <property name="State_None"              value="0"  />
  <property name="State_Broken"            value="5"  />
  <property name="State_Breaking"          value="20"  />
  <property name="State_Failing"            value="60"  />
  <property name="State_Lowering"          value="82"  />

so put this into your morale and dont change the rest remember to save what you have incase you dont like these values....Hope this helps...p.s Close quarters combat still issue probably always will be so no miracle there sorry...hope you enjoy..

Thanks bud! Will try it!