AI Improvement Suggestions
-AI should get behind cover automatically that’s facing the enemy’s attacking direction or enemy markers(which ever marker is closer or direction getting shot from) and not get in front of the cover that’s facing enemy or stand outside window or house from direction the enemy is attacking from to get shot in back which happens too often, AI should be aware where the enemy is and is attacking from.
-AI in buildings should face/cover windows, doors, stairways especially if the window is facing direction of enemy or enemy markers or take cover even behind any object nearby like sofas or couches or desks or rubble and not look away from marker by staring into blank wall like they usually do now, so enemy cant sneak up inside house/building on them and kill them from behind, AI should change covers depending on changing enemy attacking direction or movement and markings; for example If AI is taking cover inside a house and the enemy attacking direction is from north then AI will get behind a window that’s facing north or any furniture or object then if the enemy sneaks up behind house from south they should change cover to new enemy position and all your squad members should always cover/face every possible entry point into house whether its windows, doors, stairs or holes in walls or at least the ones closer to enemy direction if house is large building since they won’t be able to cover them all in large structures. They should poke their heads up occasionally to gain line of sight on potential enemies then duck down if shot at then poke head out again once fire stops to engage enemies in their line of sight, they should also blind fire from behind cover if fire is continuous. They should never stand in middle of a room looking at a random wall. When not inside a house/structure AI should try to take cover behind any rubble or vehicles burnt or not or behind any elevated position whether little hill or ditches and trenches.
-And when attacking a house/building the AI should try to go room to room to clear building not go and sit in one room without checking other rooms, or at least have option to make them go room to room clearing if you feel there’s danger inside rooms like anti-personnel mines and don’t want them to fall victim.
-AI should react to sounds and look in that direction whether its gunshots or footsteps or unknown vehicle sounds which ever is closer, this would make crawling or sneaking more useful like crouch walking which would make less noise. They should also react to voices or voice commands being shouted by enemy whether its giving commands or yelling out enemy markers. This would make sneaking around to mark enemies more challenging as it would make it possible for enemies to hear you.
-AI actually looks in direction of marker(AI would look to which ever marker is closer or direction getting shot from). Currently sometimes not all of your squad members look towards markers even though they are suppose to, some still be looking in wrong directions or be too slow then get shot in back or let enemy sneak around behind them. They should also keep looking in that direction or be faced towards it until new closer markers appear or they spot or hear enemies/shots or get shot from new direction. If no enemies is sighted or being engaged or shot at, the AI should continuously SCAN and look around the enemy attack direction or markers searching for targets, so AI doesn’t suffer from Tunnel Vision with sight being hooked on 1 spot then end up shot from other spot few feet to the right or left or up or down because AI wasn’t looking there and was hooked on only 1 spot.
-AI needs improvement to its line of sight because currently too often you see AI stand in front of other AI enemy and just stare at them without reacting and having a little staring contest, so giving them proper line of sight the AI will engage all closest enemies in that line of sight or which ever is shooting at them first, of course the line of sight should have distance limit so wouldn’t see or engage enemies at large distances away like some super robots, unless enemy is marked or they see movement in that direction but not if the enemy is stationary at that distance and not marked, while at closer ranges they would engage any enemies in their line of sight moving or stationary instantly, AI with Scopes should obviously increase line of sight(one more thing to add in game to make AI use Scopes on weapons), trees, objects, brushes, bushes or tall grass(wheat/corn fields) or areas with no light should block or hinder that line of sight also, currently AI seems to magically see you through wheat/corn fields while stationary which shouldn’t be possible, at least hinder line of sight if many corn plants in way or if deep inside cornfield. Having proper line of sight for AI might also make them use placed weapons like MG placements or AA guns or AT guns or MG position in tanks by commanding them to use them as they will only fire what they can see or order them to shoot, can even switch to driver or MG position in tanks while the AI in gunner position can engage targets at will or as directed and gunner’s fire and target engagement successes will depend on tier and level and perks that soldier has. if AI has no line of sight on enemy but they are being shot at from the enemy from a certain direction, the AI will return blind fire in that direction whether they are marked or not.
To prevent all AI players from becoming instant killing robots make Tier and AI player level determine reaction time and time spent identifying target, higher levels and tiers would have faster reaction and identifying times so not all AI players would have same reaction times to instantly target and kill targets on sight, of course enemy markers should help decrease reaction and identifying times as they would already know enemy is there same with closer ranges should also decrease these reaction times. But the reaction times of the lowest tier should be realistic to a average human being’s reaction time not too super slow.
Most importantly make AI remember targets, AI seems to suffer from amnesia after seeing or engaging enemies they seem to forget they were even there, after engaging or seeing an enemy at a direction they should continue to look in that direction unless other markers pop up near by or get fried from new directions or see new enemies. If in aggressive mode if they see an enemy and then the enemy disappears nearby or in next house or room they should pursue and go after them or grenade area if you allow them to grenade freely(which should also be a command option if want your squad to go grenade at will).
-Give AI ability to use Mortars/artillery, by telling them to deploy if they are in your squad and telling them to engage certain area on map or enemy markers, or tell them to fire at will and they will engage any enemy markers in range or any enemies it can see in its line of sight.
-And the enemy’s camouflage uniform should have effect on line of sight at distances making them more useful as it would make it unable for AI to not to see them at greater distances blending them in, each camouflage having more camouflage effect/rating depending on what type of vegetation or object they are nearby or standing close to(winter camo having more rating on snow, wooded camo more in vegetation or greener areas, or the orangey brownish German pea dot camo more rating in muddy/trench areas n etc).
-Currently what i have noticed is that AI never mounts their weapons when they are laying on ground or near elevated object or window. So should make AI automatically mount their weapons when they are behind an elevated object or window or laying on ground.
-Give AI ability to mark targets based on any enemies they see in their line of sight or direction they might be getting shot from. Unless enemy infantry has been already marked in that specific area or vehicles have already been marked, so there isn’t a spam of AI marking enemies. If no enemies have been marked in an area and AI is taking fire from that direction and the AI cant see enemies in their line of sight then if equipped with binoculars it will try to use it to see enemies in their line of sight with the binoculars to mark or to engage.
-Currently i have noticed is that AI has unlimited ammo to make it more realistic make AI run out of ammo and they will automatically resupply when close to caches,it should also tell you how much ammo ammo/grenades each squad member has on screen so you know when they are low on ammo or out of ammo so you can go near a cache so they can resupply. AI should also resupply at med kit caches on medic kits if out. One other aspect of this that can be annoying is if you run out of ammo then switch to another soldier and then switch back to original soldier and that soldier will still have 0 ammo even if he was standing near cache. So If AI is near a cache they should automatically resupply with ammo so you don’t have to baby sit every soldier in squad to resupply individually.
-AI has morale and can retreat if overwhelmed by attacking enemy forces or if facing larger enemy numbers and suppressive fire while attacking. Would retreat to your position or back to safer place maybe even all the way back to main spawn point. This way your AI troops are no longer suicidal making you think and plan before attacking and preventing too many unnecessary deaths lowering reinforcements count. AI player tier and level would determine how fast or often this can happen. If Proper suppression is introduced like i talk about further down in this post then if AI is fully suppressed for long periods of times and cant return fire then it will try to retreat back by running when given chance or crawling to safer spot especially if attacking.
-With the new update the AI is suppose to use stationary machine guns and will leave it if an friendly player approaches, instead of this you should be able to only use the MG place in use by an AI by clicking a button which u normally use to get in placements so you do not disturb AI while engaging enemies, but AI should linger around waiting to get back on placement until the player leaves the placement or the player controlling that AI cancels order or gives new order.
Squad Mechanics Suggestions
-Ability to change squad uniform/appearance in battle before spawning in for example currently if squad has green camo uniform but a winter map with snow loads then you have no way to switch on your winter uniform to blend in. So being able to switch appearance before you spawn will help spawning in with right uniform to blend in. Should also have same option to change vehicle paint too. I get you cant make all of the uniforms available for ever map since most were only available during certain time periods so have to make only available in the selection that’s available in that campaign. But all uniforms that were available in Moscow, Stalingrad, Tunisia or any earlier campaigns should all be available in later campaign maps too even the desert and winter ones and gloves.
-Having Rules of engagement separate from Aggressive/passive commands, introduce hold fire to not fire at all command and only return fire command and fire at will command for rules of engagement commands, while aggressive mode will make them engage and pursue enemy up to a certain distance, for instance if there are enemy markers near by or they hear sounds of gunfire/footsteps nearby they will go and investigate especially if it is coming from next room in same building or outside building which will be useful during assaults, while in passive mode they will stay put where they are and not investigate or pursue enemy markers or sounds instead just look and become attentive towards that direction which would be useful during defending when you don’t want your squad to leave their positions.
-Make it possible to give commands to squad to lay mines, it can be burdensome to have to manually switch to every player in your your squad just to place all the mines present in your squad, would work same way as attack orders are given as you point place where you want to place mines and choose which type of mine and they will automatically place.
-If you have an engineer in your squad you should be able give command to place construction placements, then your engineer would automatically come and build it, instead of having to switch to your engineer to make placements.
-Ability to Divide Squads into Fire-teams: whether you want just 2 or more then 2 fire-teams you can divide up your squad in main menu or while in game if one of your fire-teams loses most of its men and you want to merge or just want to create new fire-team during combat and can give separate command to each fire-team for example telling your MG/Sniper fire-team to set up position while you flank around with your other squad members.
-Also make it possible to give commands individually to each soldier like if you want specific soldiers to defend and cover different points.
-When giving commands or yelling out radial chat options or calling for help the mouth should actually move along with voice. When issuing commands your arm/hand should also give signal or point towards where your giving command to move and etc., this way you can see which of your enemies is squad leader if you see them using arm to point from afar.
-Introduce Voice chat command you can give commands to your squad by saying the command by mic. Something like this was present in Tom Clancy’s End War which was a pretty useful feature if you wanted to save time by saying the command through mic instead of looking for button or command option with controller.
-Make squad management a bit closer to what it was in game brothers in arms where you can tell your squad members to get behind specific covers or make all squad members find cover nearby not just move to certain area and most importantly to engage or suppress or shoot a certain direction whether its some target or marker or any direction you point at.
Here’s example of how it worked in the brother in arms game:
h ttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MXUzLOxvkSI&list=PLXgH1S-M1iwreVqATuKIdJKduJFK294o7
-Add 8 members to German assault squads: and have option of unlocking all 8 assault squad members just like you can for engineer squads where you can unlock all 6 spots for engineers, historically German assault squads had 8 man assault squads which were introduced in November 1944.
Here is detailed videos on their layouts:
h ttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F0AefChqs5c
h ttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dpZdVD7fx2E
-Make map more interactable when commanding squad, can give commands on map too instead of relying on visual targets to give commands.
-Multiple Deployment Sets: Before if you progressed to a higher rank in a campaign and started using squads that came with higher tier soldiers, your older squads pretty much became useless and collected dust even now after major update there’s a huge inventory of many squads you might not get to use at all. So instead of giving option to sell them why not make them more useful? By making it so that when all your squads die out in game you get to pick different squads from your inventory maybe even get to create different deployment sets(can have 2-3 sets or more if you buy premium membership?) which you can call up after your first deployment set dies that way your older squads wont be useless. In that sense can also make reserves more useful and can be actually used in battle where if your squad loses any men you can call up reserve soldiers(if that particular class is available in squad reserves) and they would spawn in from nearest spawn point and give your current squad last little longer life in battle. Of course reserve call up would have limit so your not calling in infinite amount of reserves for just one squad. In your squad upgrades you can upgrade to have 1-2 reserve spots for every soldier in your squad which you get to choose from reserves, so every squad can have 1-2 reserve spots for every soldier in squad.
-Ability to command your squad to heal, your squad never heals until they are downed making them walk around with lower HP, without having to switch to them individually to heal them you should have command to order them all to heal.
-Aside from Formation Commands to stand closer or standard or wider apart, there should also be commands to apply different kind of formation types like skirmish line formations or row formation or marching formation, depending on what is needed during combat or marching:
Squad formations for Germans:
h ttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-rKRt5zVZgw
h ttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W-UmvY9KnW0
Squad formations for US:
h ttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hGt4BFuKV4A
Squad formations for Soviets:
from 4:50 on-wards:
h ttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hfZXlpJkDJg&t=132s
Vehicle Suggestions
-Make minor Transport vehicles like jeeps spawn in every main spawn points especially in large maps where its a pain to walk/run to objectives which are far away when no one has built any spawn points. Although Half tracks have been introduced with mechanized infantry in new update should have ability to spawn in with transport trucks for all squads by unlocking in squad upgrades and also researched in research section, whether its Horse Carts, Jeeps, Trucks or Half Tracks you get to choose…yes i said Horse carts as many German infantry mainly used Horse carts. Half tracks should obviously be reserved for mechanized infantry only. For smaller vehicles like Horse Carts or jeeps or Sd.Kfz 250 you can have option for deploying 2 of them per squad if unlocked in squad upgrades.
-Make steering wheels in vehicles workable, make them actually steer and also the speed odometers work along with fuel gauges if fuel is introduced in game. For all vehicles and tanks.
-When getting in vehicles make AI find another transport vehicle nearby to get into when there’s no room in vehicle and they will follow your vehicle while in that vehicle. Give ability to command AI in Vehicles to drive to certain points without actually being in vehicle with them or without being a driver or commander, whether its transport vehicle or Tank.
-Make the AA and Anti tank placements tow-able with the transport vehicles so you don’t have to dismantle them or have to build another further down in map when you can just tow it down there and place it.
-Adding fuel to vehicles so they can run out driving too long, making you drive to supply point to refuel.
-Ability to choose Tank ammunition load out like there is in War Thunder. So many AP rounds go to waste, while you always run out of HE rounds. Also can make them unlockable in squad upgrades different kinds of rounds.
-Enable tank squads to unlock ability from squad upgrades or through upgrades to install fire extinguishers inside tanks like there is in WarThunder game, of course it would have limited abilities like only once or twice depending on upgrades.
-Give ability to command squad members in vehicles especially in Tanks to sit in a certain seat, too often you will find when you leave vehicle with your squad and then get back in they will randomly find their own seat to sit in and mess up order especially if you have specific perks enabled for your driver and loader and gunner and they end up sitting in wrong seat and losing ability of those perks.
-Make it possible to tow other vehicles and tanks, can be a let down to abandon your perfectly fine tank because it got stuck in a ditch or trench. Should have option to call out in needing help to tow and a tow symbol/icon should show on screen above vehicle and on map. If fuel introduced can tow vehicles that run out of fuel.
-Give ability to call in artillery strikes while in vehicle, currently you cant.
-Make engineers deploy refill caches for vehicles, 1 per squad.
-Give Infantry ability to climb on top of tanks and use MGs mounted on top.
-Make crewman only get in and out tanks through where the hatches are located on the tank to make it more realistic.
-Have option to switch to machinegunner position in tanks, so you can use it if your turret or turret MG is knocked out of action.
-Be able to call for repairs or weapon refills for vehicles(Tanks) and placements(AT placements n etc) through radial chat and marker icon should show on screen over the vehicle and on map indicating that person needs it.
Environmental Suggestions
-Introduce Day and Night cycle during battles, so make 24hrs in game equal 48mins or less in real time. Giving chance to experience night battles and the challenges it creates. During Nights the lights in houses/buildings and street lights should come on and can take them out if you want darkness to limit visibility, maybe even put lights switches in houses where u can switch em on or off if you desire. You should also have ability to take out power lines or transformers to take out lights in a certain area. Might have to introduce flash lights with this feature.
-Introduce changing dynamic weather, there’s already preset weather in map it loads with but introduce weather that changes and moves, where over time dark clouds start coming and then starts raining or cause storm randomly then pass and become sunny again. Also introduce Snowing and when it start snowing, more snow should accumulate on ground. If storm approaches on snowy/winter maps, it should turn into snow storm with blowing snow limiting visibility for you and the AI(their line of sight). Heavy Rains should also flood certain areas a little, like pot holes or craters or trenches pretty much any areas where water cant properly drain out of or on lower ground.
-Make rain turn all soft ground more muddy and make difficult to drive vehicles in muddy parts where ground isn’t hardened like asphalt roads. Maybe even making vehicles get stuck or drive real slow depending on how big or heavy a vehicle is and how big the tracks and wheels are. For infantry make it difficult to walk making them unable to run in muddy areas or walk real slow depending on what type of footwear equipped. With this should make Footwear customizable you can mix and match in appearance section so they don’t already come with pants limiting options to change them and should come separate. Footwear costing like 2 appearance cards just like with gloves.
-Add Wild life to environment like dogs, cats, rats, cows, sheep, goats, wild boars, bears, birds n etc just for fun to shoot at and to add to the visuals to the environment or maybe even make it possible to get attacked by one if you tease one of them, smaller ones could be scared off with gun fire.
-The Most fun Feature that could be added is Destruction: to structures and buildings already have environmental, small object destruction currently and adding structural destruction would completely make it more fun and change the way you fight battles by destroying and taking out buildings and changing landscape of battlefield, whether its blowing little holes in walls for sniper to shoot out of or taking whole walls out, or taking out enough support/pillars or skeleton of the building to make it collapse either partly or whole, each floor having its own skeleton or pillars, if the most bottom one taken out then every thing above should also collapse on that side. Can introduce chisels or sledge hammers for knocking holes in walls or even using as melee weapon. This way map designers can spend less time creating obstacles so players can create their own obstacles in game by destroying structures.
-The current walls in game which you can shoot through should make little holes in walls when you shoot through them. So u can see where your being shot from and where your bullets are ending up or at least add the bullet marking on exit hole on other side of wall too if proper little holes cant be implemented.
-Ability to lock doors and windows from inside making enemy shoot the door off with bullets or blow it with explosives or grenades to get in or simply use melee with weapon to break in if the door light enough.
-Ability to dig tunnels, if you dig deep enough you can start digging forward without the surface ground disappearing that way you can have tunnels. Only problem would be with darkness maybe have something to put in to light up tunnels or introduce flashlights and tunnels can be blown up if a large munition/bomb is dropped on it causing large crater. Another problem would be climbing out of them, maybe have ability to build ladders or can just dig slanted up creating a little ramp up to go in and out tunnel.
-Just like tank tracks marks have been introduced in game where tank tracks leave marks on soft ground, Infantry footprints should also be introduced on soft grounds especially mud and snow, these footprints should extend to hard ground to a certain short distance, for example if you are walking on mud or snow leaving behind prints on mud or snow and when you get to asphalt or concrete/wood those muddy or snowy print should appear on those concrete surfaces with the muddy prints extending longer then snowy prints of course. All soft ground should turn muddy in rain making easier to see footprints compared to dry soft ground. This would make tracking enemy infantry better knowing where the infantry came from and went, Maybe even make different kinds of foot-gear give off different foot prints.
-Maybe Introduce ability to freeze in colder/winter maps if spent too much time standing in open, unless you find a fire or something burning or cover inside a building or in a trench(trenches would heat you up less then around fire or house), movement will also lessen the cold a little, so having on proper clothing for winter being more important so you can’t just equip any type of clothing for your soldiers in winter/cold maps which would punish you and your AI soldiers for wearing wrong gear and not wearing gloves should effect your aim and reload times or anything else you can do with hands. Maybe introduce a thermostat you can tell temperature as it would change with the weather. This would apply to your AI soldiers too not just you. Every clothing item should have modifier/rating that gives benefit or decrease benefit depending on weather and environment, for example; winter clothing giving negative benefits in hotter climates.
