Making the fight harder

[Reidy]

Myself and Horatio, along with anyone else who has helped us test either our Soviet Intervention Mission or our Hearts and Minds Mission will have encountered an AI mod that we used to increase the difficulty of the opposition or at least attempt to make it feel like we were against a semi-conscious enemy. The differences can be seen in many you tube videos and such  however the best way to experience the difference made by these mods is by the following:

 

Download an AI Enhancement Mod :

 

http://www.armaholic.com/page.php?id=24080

 

Download and extract the file to your ArmA 3 Directory just like any other mod however you need to make sure to move the "userconfig" folder out of the "@ASR_AI3" into the ArmA Directory. Then check your "userconfig" folder within the directory and it should look something like this:

 

 

This will contain the setting files which allows you to customize some of the parameters within the mod.

 

Obtain a Mission to Test:

 

You can either just create a short scenario (with way-points for best effect) and play this mission with the AI Enhancer. No modules or advanced editing required.

OR alternatively use my pre-made mission here: https://www.dropbox.com/s/u9in0hiq1wdz5om/ASR_Showcase.Shapur_BAF.pbo?dl=0

 

Place that mission into the "MPMissions" within the Arma 3 Directory for use in multiplayer. Or extract it with PBO tools and place into "C:\Users\MyComputer\Documents\Arma 3 - Other Profiles\YourUserName\missions" for use in the editor to alter the mission and preview.

 

What does the rest of the community think? Do you like the AI how it is? Or would you like to see these mods in use? Possibly in a Gamenight?

 

 

Cheers ,

               Kieran

[Colsta]

I personally have played against AI while running this mod while helping the Colliers test their missions and I only have two words.

Absolutely. Terrifying.

For one the enemies run for cover when they get shot. They push towards your position. They try to flank you. They circle you. They bombard you with GL fire if they have the means.

It's exponentially harder. And proportionally fun.

[Tylermaniac]

Totally agree both of you. The addition of AI enhancement, beside increasing the difficulty of the mission, allows for less AI to be spawned on the battlefield. 

"Soviet Intervention" (last night's game night) originally had 300 groups roaming Takistan. In order to match the required difficulty (without ASR) that was needed for thirty people, we needed to boost it to 700. ASR AI 3 essentially halved the required AI load on the server, and the AI were not only just as hard, but dramatically smarter.

 

Lol, we tried to use our BTR once from close range to assault a city. It was there for TWO minutes and an RPG took it out. God damn that was great. Never happened before to me.

[Colsta]

300 groups roaming Takistan. In order to match the required difficulty (without ASR) that was needed for thirty people, we needed to boost it to 700.

Didn't even think about it performance-wise. That's incredible.

[Guest]

Mm I've heard you two talking about this mod when testing your missions but don't think it was ever enabled when I popped up to assist testing? but if it's anything like what Colsta said.. well I'm sold on this being for EU3/Gauntlet all the time.

[lexota]

Count me in i would love to see this mod put in to the repositorie for eu3! Or is it allready implemented in the modlist?

[SkullCollector]

I personally have played against AI while running this mod while helping the Colliers test their missions and I only have two words.

Absolutely. Terrifying.

For one the enemies run for cover when they get shot. They push towards your position. They try to flank you. They circle you. They bombard you with GL fire if they have the means.

It's exponentially harder. And proportionally fun.

 

The eloquence is strong with this one.

Couldn't have said it better myself, and I agree wholeheartedly.

 

In more than a few testing runs for a 30-player mission, we were a fireteam's worth of players trying to assault the first town from many different angles, with mechanisation and sometimes even heli support. We couldn't get past the first compound. We managed to clear it and were forced to abandon the assault and fight for our lives, as the AI flanked and surrounded us. Nothing has ever been as scary as being a medic, alone, with one magazine holed up in a shed and hearing the AI's footsteps and voices as they moved in on me, literally a metre away behind the wall with no way out but the ambush-inviting doorway.

 

Please?

[Amentes]

Sounds good to me.

[Fraggloid]

It's nice and all, but we need to fix the modpack we have now before introducing new ones.

[ParabolicAJB]

My my experience of playing EU3 and the test missions with this mod, it changes the flow of the game dramatically for all the right reasons.

It does need to be harder, because my most fun times have been whilst up against it and actually losing, as highlighted above, the buzz and the thrill is great. When was the last time you got flanked on Zargabad? Probably never short of an AI accidentally wandering past your building.

When I was involved in the testing, we started strong but soon got owned by the AI, not because they have 1337 reaction times or aims, but they used superior tactics, e.g. We stayed in the same position for too long, and they punished us for it. This in itself would be great for gameplay to force us to up the ante with our tactics (both strategic and 'of the moment' in the heat of battle.

When I played the Gamenight last week without the AI mod, even though I wasn't in the action, I was listening on the radio and could tell it was no where near as intense as it would have been.

This in my opinion is a must have.

[Reidy]

It's nice and all, but we need to fix the modpack we have now before introducing new ones.

 

 

Yes I agree we need to finalize the modpack, however I know that ASR AI3 is only required Server Side. Cannot comment on the alternate ones such as Fire Fight Improvement System.

[Ryko]

Hi Kieran,

 

I look at the employment of this mod from a performance point of view, rather than what it can do for the mission.  If it fixed certain problems I don't like with Arma's AI - namely, that enemies can shoot you through foliage while you can only see a pixel of them - then I would be very enthusiastic for it.  Looking at the MOD, it doesn't seem to address that specifically, but there are a few other performance-impacting elements that it does address, which could be useful.

 

In light of the above, I think on maps like Takistan, Fallujah and Zargabad, this AI enhancement could be very entertaining.  But on Chernarus, or any other tree-heavy map, I think it'll be a nightmare.  It's hard enough fighting the enemy you can't see through the trees, but if they actually flank around intelligently?  You'll have people leaving in droves.

 

I haven't looked in-depth into the scripting support for the MOD - there seems to be some - but if there is some capacity to adjust the difficulty, then that could be a mitigating factor.

 

The other thing to consider is the interaction with other MODs; the author supplies AI Config MODs for third-party MODs like RHS, but admits they may be out of date.  Adding a MOD only to have it fail with other MODs creates more problems than it solves.

 

ARMA gives the AI some advantages to make up for the fact that it can't make them intelligent: to do so would be to add a whole layer of scripting that would bog down the performance of the game (which this MOD may well do).

 

To summarize, as a player, I'd be game to try it, but as someone who's trying to get some stability out of Gauntlet, I'm reluctant to add more variables to the mix.

 

- R

[Titangames98]

I agree with Ryko, stability is key. Having a normal experience on eu3 or a gamenight without anything going wrong is the goal, and I think the current repo should be fixed/polished (I am always available for testing), and then the AI enhancement mod should be toyed with and tested until it can be effectively added to the repo.

We have a good, effective set of mods at the moment (ACRE is another story). Stability and a consistent experience is I think what every Arma player desires, and Arma things are always happening, shit is never going right because that's just the way Arma is. A stable set of mods is what I would rather have instead of immediate AI enhancement mod additions, as cool as they are.

On another note, the gamenight was fantastic. Fire support could have been better, but I think overall it was a pretty great experience and the AI were quite a challenge. We never did get through the whole thing, barely past the first objective. It would be nice to play it again in another gamenight soon. Keep up the good work Colliers.

[GhostDragon]

Ok I really enjoy this as it makes missions more fun than a 500m shooting range and will encourage people to play intelligently and watch 6s

[ParabolicAJB]

I think everyone agrees with aiming for stability, that goes without saying. This kind of improvement is a necessity to the kind of experience EU#3 is trying to provide, so would be good if it was next on the hit list.

Just to add, when testing, this seemed to work very well with the EU#3 modset, at least up to the point of a handful of players and with Kieran hosting. Further testing would of course be required.