The AI in this game is abysmal. It is probably the MOST frustrating aspect of this game. You can see it in every match, for all players. This is a problem, because if it’s getting me (war thunder veteran) mad, I cannot imagine how mad it will get anyone else.
Note, this is not a thread about AI shooting. That’s a whole other can of worms.
The AI rarely sprint with you.
The AI does not understand windows or climbables and will often go miles around or just sit against a wall to get shot.
The AI only follow you sometimes, half the time getting stuck on nothing and just standing around while the enemy plinks at them.
If you don’t mark a point (and sometimes when looking at a point, you actually mark a random wall), they will not get to where you want to go
The AI is extremely erratic, sprinting around in every direction at times making it hard to both hit them as well as to keep them from running around in your face if you stop to take a shot.
Friendly AI will often bump into you and get in your way.
Friendly AI will just run into your tank treads to take damage pointlessly.
The AI will not prioritize safety or buildings. Billions of deaths could be avoided if the AI prioritized getting inside instead of standing outside.
There will be times where one or two AI soldiers will, without any input from you, run in the complete opposite direction or charge towards the enemy. Even when told to sit still I have seen a bot or two run just…somewhere else. I have had matches where a bot was in an area that I didn’t even walk towards and I only found out because I had died and swapped to them.
One of the most diabolical issues with the AI is it’s complete lack of pathfinding ability in certain areas. Areas with debris, such as in Stalingrad, will completely trip up the AI’s pathfinding and cause them to stand around uselessly at the back of a building or do the funny thing where they jump up and around all over the place.
The worst is trenches. The AI has absolutely NO idea what a trench is and will do their level best to stay out in the open outside of the trench so they can get shot than dare step in that trench and stay in it. I cannot count the amount of times I have seen mine, my teammates, and the enemies AI squadmates bob around like lemmings around trench lines. This is actually even worse on the new mountain pass map, as the covered trenches (clearly done by slapping a slab of concrete prop on top) causes them to be even worse at traversing them. They don’t understand that there is a prop in the way.
However, it isn’t just debris and trenches the AI often gets stuck on. It can be any sort of obstacle where they will suddenly get terribly tripped up. I have seen many groups of AI stuck in buildings, on various clutter and other things they have no reason to be so hung up on.
Additionally, the controls for controlling the AI is clunky and simplistic. On the simplistic side, all you can really do is press X on something to get the AI to go somewhere, get them to try to kill a tank (I have never done this and the concept of trusting the AI to use anti-tank weaponry frightens me), or to get an engineer to build or unbuild a constructable.
On the clunky side, anything beyond pressing X requires using the single-troop direction key and it’s quite difficult to use in the extremely fast pace of enlisted gameplay. The game really isn’t the sort of game where you can spend the time to fiddle with it all. And the UI leaves a lot to be desired.
I don’t have solutions for all of these issues, but I think I do have some actual suggestions.
1. An extremely robust re-work of all maps’ AI nodes (For those unaware, AI often follows pre-mapped or procedural generated ‘node-maps’ to direct how and where they should act and go). Marking windows and ledges as climbable, holes in bunkers or doors as prime areas to move into. Finding areas where AI get stuck and adding more directions to them. Really, REALLY detailed nodes around debris and clutter. I believe that the node-maps aren’t nearly as in-depth as they should be for the level of detail in Enlisted’s maps.
2. More ‘smart’ passive AI directives. AI should prioritize cover, getting into buildings (especially when sighting enemy armor or when artillery has been called on their position), and generally acting smarter. I’m no AI maker, but I feel like various flags could be called to do this.
3. More detailed AI control. I feel like the way the AI controls are now are too clunky, too simple, and ultimately too much requiring taking direct control. I think ideas like using the map to tell your squad where to, the ability to use the map to tell your engineers to build what you want. This is edging into RTS territory, but I feel that was initially something Enlisted was always meant to be.
3a. The most out there suggestion is ways to slow down enlisted gameplay so the direction of squads is more effective and important. As it is, Enlisted is an extremely fast paced game where matches can be won or loss by the acts of a couple players in short time. It doesn’t really allow for much strategy.
4. Similar to suggestion 2, but being able to determine how your squads act before going into a match would be nice. Passive/Aggressive is nice but I think being able to go further than that and determine that before getting into a match would really help players figure out how exactly they want their AI to act.
TLDR: I got so mad at my AI please make them better I’m so tired.
It could be that simple, or, that they don’t think this is an issue worth spending time addressing. Afterall, their is no money in fixing problems, just money in making new stuff the customer will pay for. 