Desirable new features for AI scripting

[Paper Tiger]

Okay, I'm a sad b@#%*&d and I play this game against the AI exclusively. But my main pleasure is designing scenarios, mainly for myself. I would like to ask if there are any plans to expand the number of options for the present AI scripting. I'm not asking about reactive scripting. The way I see it, there's still an enormous potential within the present system.

What I'd like to see is a command to make the AI units pop smoke, possibly added like the Passenger Dismount command. "Units in Group 1 move to zone A, pop smoke and dismount passengers".

Secondly, I'd like to be able to instruct the AI units to use area fire from their present location. Maybe painting a zone like the AI artillery plans/ And units in that group would fire on the painted locations until the order expired.

Thirdly, the present artillery system is (IMO) a bit lame. It would be nice if it could be added to an order like the Passenger Dismount command.

At the very least, it would be nice to have different artillery plans for each attack plan and not just one for all five plans. These changes would all make the AI a more challenging opponent.

At the moment, I'm designing a scenario where a couple of US Stryker platoons attack an Uncon held village to be played as the Red side. It's just too easy to kill the AI by hiding my units and waiting for them to move on my positions across open ground as they never use area fire on suspected enemy positions.

[Cpl Steiner]

The one thing I want most of all is Event-based waypoints rather than just time-based. By this I mean like the way "Operation Flashpoint" did it. Some examples below:

a) another friendly group reaches its waypoint (bounding overwatch).

the enemy reaches a certain area painted on the map (reaction move).

c) the unit reaches a certain casualty level (retreat move).

With such tools at the scenario designer's disposal you could simulate all manner of things, from flank attacks to delaying actions. The whole point about AI is that it has to make units react to other friendly and enemy units intelligently. You can't do that with purely time-based waypoints.

From a programming point of view I reckon we are not that far off. Touch objectives are already triggered when a unit reaches them. It is only a small step further to have a touch objective linked to the waypoint of another unit and you could have bounding overwatch and flanking implemented.

[Plugger]

Goodaye,

I'd whole heart'dly endorse Cpl Steiner's comments. I'd also add the ability to 'branch' on a test condition.

Eg. Is the unit under fire? If so then do this... If not then continue doing whatever...

Without some kind of conditional AI scripting you have no ability to react to the other sides actions. Having a preplanned strategic AI working on a set timetable is pretty limited if the opposition doesn't do exactly what you expect it to do, when you expect it to do it.

I realise that any improvement to the AI scripting would be a significant programming undertaking and is probably well down the list of priorities but at some point it needs to be addressed as once players get familiar with the game a canned , non-reactive AI won't present much of a challenge for the majority of players who choose to play against the computer.

Regardless of how good the game is in other areas if it eventually becomes too easy to beat at the highest difficulty level then you'll loose interest.

I'm confident, however, that Battlefront have already figured this out. From a commercial viewpoint if they want to continue to grow the franchise they will implement improvements at some point in the future. Hopefully sooner rather than later.

Cheers,

Plugger

[Paper Tiger]

Yes, I want reactive scripting too and we're probably going to get it in the future, but it's a pretty certain thing that it won't make an appearance until the first module which is scheduled for sometime after the new year. It's certainly not going to be "patched" in and that's a long time to wait.

Anyway, reactive scripting will probably be added to the current and not replace it. My suggestions will improve the system whatever else it is capable of doing. Especially the artillery. If we can script artillery fire into a group's movement order like the 'Passenger Dismount' command , it could further be restricted to a group that has some ability to call it in. This would make the Syrian FO very useful when under the AI control. At present, they are just useless cannon fodder.

I am hoping that some small tweaks will be made to expand the options that we presently have in a future patch. It's a HUGE part of the game. Are there any plans to do this?