I don’t know how exactly the AI works in this game or how their class/weapon affects their effectiveness, but it would be nice if it did.
for example, a positioning-oriented class, e.g. sniper, rifleman, gunner, will be better when shooting from a position at more distant targets.
while classes focused on mobility will be more efficient in close-range fights, e.g. assaulter, medic, flamethrower.
Additionally, units whose priority is… simply to survive to remain effective, e.g. radio, engineer, will simply avoid clashes and shoot as a last resort.
soldiers would also benefit and be punished for the specifications of their weapons. a simple example is assaulter, if it has fast RoF smg, it will be good for short distances, and if it has slow RoF smg, it will be better for medium distances.
the same with snipers and other weapons in general, so the weaponery of our soldiers also matters for our playing style. It would be quite intuitive, we arm soldiers for the style of play we like.
I think that the choice of squad and what weapon they have would be much more important in the game. each squad would not only concern the player’s effectiveness but also the need and situation on the battlefield in general.
mg is on top, as it has great range and usually great accuracy. the most deadly AI are usually those with machineguns.
then you have smgs, which are “great” in the mid ranges
then you have bolt actions, which are great in close quarters ( unironically )
small anecdote
i placed some sniper in my upcoming battle of foy pve, hoping to be accurate on the distance yet they can’t shot for shit. and only kill in close quarter.
and… well. semi auto soldiers are the worse. they just miss equally if the target is far or close.
but, what you suggested would be much greater than… what we have.
Give them perk for faster melee, they will do better in cqc, they have ultra instinct already, just sometimes lack dmg.
No matter how much thay improve the AI, they will still struggle against real player (but i know some people play worse than bots even now).
They already shoot through bushes like crazy, there is a long way of fixes and improvements ahead.
For now i would like my bot squad to follow me through window into building instead of running around it and dying.
Or not running just slightly out of artillery zone and still dying to it
this is good advice, i have already thought about that, all my bayonet soldiers have this perk.
this suggestion applies to bot vs bot more, because of course the difference will not be big enough to win against a player, unless a very bad one…
my suggestion assumes a small bonus for each of the resulting situations, in such a way that when a bot with rifle meets a bot with smg, the bot with smg will mathematically win the fight by 75% or whatever.
but if you look at it from a broader perspective, even such a small change will make a big difference in fights at different distances.
I’ll just say this. On one hand yes the A.I. can be improved quite drastically. In fact, in my own honest opinion, I think they need an entire focus before Steam release, but that’s probably not going to happen and just my own thought. Lots of good players can just mow down Bots as in they are nothing!
ON THE OTHER HAND HOWEVER COMMA…
Apparently the Bots are “good enough” because there is a sizeable portion of players out there complaining that they are losing to the very same Bots. As in they are reporting the Bots as cheaters and hackers. Hell even I get a few replays sent to me saying how they found one only to find out they lost to a bot. And when I have to explain to them calmly how that player was a bot I get insulted even by them (looking at you German PC Players in a certain BR 5 Berlin matchup that failed at try-harding and letting the bots capture all 5 points)!
So let that sink in. There is enough bad players out there that the bots are preferable in some of your matches because the bots will do better than them and actually be on the objective. This very reason is why sometimes updates to them are very little and very slow. They don’t need to be god bots here; they need to be average and good enough.
If you are doing better than a bot, building a rally here and there, and playing the objective then hey; that’s already good enough for me!
My thing is that they need to work on an “Aggro” type system for the AI.
While the OP has a very good point (that I definitely agree with)
So first and foremost, when the AI are standing around by the player without any specific orders, they will automatically go to a position with cover, and if there are especially worthwhile positions, like a sandbag wall with a hole to shoot from, MGs and such would prioritize those postions.
Similar situation if they are ordered to a position, and especially so if they are individually ordered to specific locations. (This method has a lot of potential for setting up multiple good firing angles with AI.
AS far as the aggro part that I mentioned, the AI need to pick their targets according to aggro and range.
AGGRO is the level of priority that the AI give to a certain target. This can be influenced by the most basic things like:
visually having line-of sight on them
being within range to hear the gunshot
“hearing” footsteps if the person is running toward them
and more advanced things like:
prioritizing an enemy that is suppressing fire with a MG vs a bolt action
prioritizing which direction they are taking fire from, and getting behind cover that is actually relevant to that direction
We can see that using a suppressed weapon in the game currently makes you borderline invisible to AI. One could surmise that its because it would reduce the aggro.
Other major differences by using an aggro system like this would be that players that QUIETLY move into position via a flank should not be killed by an omniscient AI that turns around and pops them without any kind of indicator that they were there.
If there is a MG nest laying down a lot of fire on the AI, they will “attempt” to fire back, or use suppressing fire. The accuracy of these shots should not be terribly accurate, as the MG nest and even the HMG nests (the weapons themselves) are very fragile.
NOTE: there really needs to be a way to build windowed sandbags to protect at least the standard MG nest a bit more.
Lastly, I would like to note that the AI really need to be more capable of interacting with player made objects, and when ordered to interact with them (friendly ones) the AI should NOT BREAK THEM DOWN, but rather make use of them!
Sandbag walls for cover or a shooting position
Ammo boxes to make sure they are topped off on ammo (in case a player is switching around and using ammo
MEDBOXES, AI should by default run over to and use medkit boxes if they have available space in their bag.
Other major emplacements like (H)MG nests and AA can be discussed later, but these are the major things.
Basically improve their ability to take cover, prioritize targets, but not be OP on accuracy or omniscient about player locations.
