Having played the game since invitation Alpha, there is one aspect that severely lacking from the game thusfar.
Given how dynamic the devs have made the infantry game now in line with all the other arcade FPS / fantasy shooters, what is sorely missing is the ability to control the squad.
The current orders implementation is garbage, and the AI behaviour is several shades worse. Pathing is also a continuing problem, so shout out to the human player community out there - please stop building spawns in attics, or closing them off with sand bags because the bots just get stuck in them.
That said, what are sorely needed are squad orders that simply support the FP player.
So for example once you set your formation, there needs to be simple commands like follow, stay, throw grenade, place mine, heal up, and now with the invention of shovels - dig. The bots should be able to perform these actions quickly and efficiently (less any suppression effects) and in some cases the area should be defined by a building or activity box centered on the active player model.
Even for new players to the game the AI should support some of the gameplay aspects intuitively - so adopt a default formation, follow the player pattern of behaviour within activity box. If the player crouches the bots crouch and seek nearest cover that supports it. I don’t know that the current setting is for the bot arc of awareness in reference to the player, but it should be set to lets say 90 degrees to the front and expand by increments with the number of ranks such that by rank V, the bot soldier has an awareness arc between 120 and 140 degrees to the front. Facing should be taken off the active player unless the bot is being directly engaged within its “awareness range”.
Correspondingly, these commands need to be obeyed explicitly by the bots so there has to be another filter where you toggle the bots ability to interact with their environment.
Ie bot AI should trigger IAW with a setting like, react to melee/fire within 10m, or react to fire within 20 m, 30m … 100m. Beyond that there is not much point since the shots don’t do much damage, chances are the LOS is obstructed anyway, and you’re just wasting ammo. This could be filtered for explicitly by the experienced players and set at default by ranking as mentioned earlier, but should potentially go reverse, so the more inexperienced the bot soldiers are they will engage at longer ranges, and as they pick up ranks they will get a better grip and focus on the order given.
On the assumption that LOS exists, the bots should also be set on a “save my own/active players life” function that assists in squad based melee combat a lot better than it currently does, so anything within 1-2m is auto melee for bots in support of the active player. This gives the player a modicum of eyes in the back, but also makes the larger squads more effective in melee, and offsets their current MG/Arty/HE cannon fodder status. Larger squads should be more fun, especially in bayonet melee !
The range bot sensitivity toggles and subsequent orders need to be better incorporated into your wheel based selection gui’s which are in game already, but remain unfinished/unpolished in their functionality.
Thanks devs keep up the good work, don’t forget about soldier cosmetics, the various countries uniforms still need work - Stalingrad cosmetics progress is excellent overall - just tighten up on historical accuracy.