Managing squads is a very important feature of this game that needs to be improved. If you don’t manage your squad correctly it will probably die in the next few minutes. A.I don’t take cover very well. When sending them to defend a point, they simply run towards it.
You should be able to change your squad behavior.(ex: defensive, neutral, attacking,)
-defensive: The soldiers crawl towards their target and stops when being shot at to defend themselves (they run towards cover if there is one)
-neutral: The same as defensive, but the soldiers run to their target
-attacking: The soldiers run towards their target and ignores enemy fire.
You should be able to edit those behavior modes and also add custom behavior modes in the menu.
More features could be added like: splitting squads, prioritizing enemy units when attacking , a retreat order, a ceasefire order, etc.
(I also have a question about bug reporting: When finding a bug in the game are we allowed to record it and post the recording here? If yes, is there an ingame recorder or do we need our own recording software?)
There is also a matter of the AI sometimes not following your orders. For example, you tell them to stay inside of a building but they walk out and get killed.
I’ve been thinking of late that it may be for the best to remove the ability to give direct commands to them. Direct orders are already being used to do some weird things and it will inevitably get worse as it always does with anything that can be easily abused. This isn’t a strategy game, I don’t think it can or should try be one. Doing that would only hurt the shooter part further.
It already feels like nothing you do has any impact. Killing bots is largely pointless and unsatisfying even if you’re killing dozens at a time. Your own bots getting kills isn’t satisfying either, because those aren’t your kills (and they aren’t highlighted at all) and it’s most likely other bots on the receiving end.
Currently, the objective in this game is to capture strategic points. I would enjoy managing a squad and using strategy to complete objectives like these. Right now, managing a squad is nearly impossible because the lack of control you have over it. The AI is also bad. The soldiers stay bunched up and are an easy target for players.
If all the control over the squad would be removed there would be no point in a squad only if the squad members follow you around, but it would be a disaster if the AI stays the same.
I wouldn’t mind if the ability to give direct commands to the squad would be removed. As you said, this isn’t a strategy game.
A solution would be to improve the AI or to completely remove it while increasing the player count in a match so that the map won’t look empty. (the second option would result in higher matchmaking times and maybe connection problems(I guess)).
My English is not very good. Sorry if made any mistakes.
The thing is, AI behavior can’t stay the way it is regardless of whether or not we keep direct control over them. I think the only commands player should be able to give them are “form up”, “spread out” and “seek cover”.
The idea behind removing direct control over bots is to ensure that whenever you encounter a group of soldiers there is at least one player among them, thus giving more weight to every encounter. It would also mean that bots won’t be used as cheap cannon fodder anymore, as you’d always have to put yourself on the line with them.
This mostly happens when you venture far from them they are going to stick to the order within a range from you, so you cannot be at one side of the map & they on the other side the range is not short but it isn’t that long either.
Sure there are issues with them, even now the most difficult task for them is to even follow me without taking complex routes to add. they sure need a further look into their behaviors & responding.
One major thing they need is updating the pathfinding to account for broken walls/fences, as the AI thinks that the white walls on the town map that has both domination and assault modes can not be climbed over, making them walk all the way around a building across the big street because of it.