Or how about a "Follow My Lead" command? That combines a "copy my stance" with a "Don't use cover/bounding" setting? That way, in theory, if the player is rushing forward but is suddenly fired on and dives to the ground, the AI would copy the stance change and not be mowed down.

I think AI performance issues like this are really important to sort out, even though it might seem like minor issues. This is a simulation, so the difference between failure and success can be a single enemy bullet. But the downside to that is that there is much less tolerance in the game for the AI to do stupid things. You *need* the blufor AI to work with you, because the game is so realistic, which means these little AI mistakes cause big problems in missions. Basically, the realism can't be higher than the AI's capabilities to deal with it and that's pretty much what many of these AI issues are about.

I haven't tried any AI mods for Arma 3 that fixed this issue (and all mods are disabled when I document bugs of course), are there any good ones out there right now?

I know Zorilya's Garrison script for Arma 3 and 2 is an outstanding patch to the horrible default combat AI inside buildings, but I haven't checked up on AI mods recently.

And I know things like AI movement, AI cover routines, etc are all less cool than adding additional features, but it's so basic, that it'd be a shame if the devs ignored it and left it to the modders to try to fix. We've got some genius-level modders in the community but sometimes I think they get stuck fixing things they shouldn't be stuck with.

Added image "TooScared" to show very clearly that the gap doesn't have to be in any way small for the AI to think its path is blocked. Kinda important to have AI that can move in the environment in a halfway predictable/intelligent way. Ok, who am I kidding, I'd settle for the AI moving in a 1/4 predictable/intelligent way through the environment. If there is a gap/road/doorway/bridge that the player is intended to move through/over/on then the AI should be able to follow. Even if a body is in the way.

Thanks for making a video of this! I reported this on the closed duplicate ticket, and was starting to think no one else noticed this problem. I've actually had this happen in more open areas before, with only a part of a body blocking the paths, so it doesn't even have to be as bad a blockage as the video demonstrates for it to break.

I've been seeing this with both maps and occurring at bridges (especially in Kava), streets, and building/fortification entryways. It seems like there are very few defined paths across the map the AI takes and when that path is blocked, (by a dead body, another squad's glitched waypoint or a pinned down squad, or just because?) the AI just walks in circles. The player has plenty of room to maneuver around the block/glitch but the AI just doesn't seem to see the space or be able to sort it out.

Sometimes, but not always, shooting the team leader of the circle-walking AI will cause them to figure it out.

The pathfinding problems have been trouble for the entire franchise, but as the rest of the AI improves (i.e. gets better at killing opponents) these glitches become more and more game-breaking.

Yeah it may well be a more global issue with AI waypoint handling, what was really odd (and that I'd not seen yet in the other errors) was that after I team switched and moved the unit off that waypoint and then switched back to my team leader, he walked right back to the obstacle and refused to move again. At which point I shot him... to uh.. see if he could take damage? Yeah, that's it. :-)

Same for me. This crash only happens after I exit the game, the game appears to close normally, but then there's an error message saying the program has stopped responding and is being shut down. This, for me, has only started happening after the new build.

Sometimes the support module will not work if you're in the middle of heavy action- it seems like if the AI system is busy (and it's very very easy to occupy the game's AI) the support request just fails to work. Sometimes the menu is blank when you click support or sometimes you don't get arty options, or sometimes it just doesn't fire rounds. So that might be what you experienced? Still needs fixing though.

AI pathfinding would have to- HAVE TO- be fixed before this. I still have AI squaddies getting stuck on carts/trees/bridges/bloody-nothing-at-all outside of buildings in the nice and open, I can only imagine what would happen inside. I do recall in OA/Arma 2 that any AI sqaddies sent into a structure had a pretty good chance of never finding their way out again. So while this would be an awesome addition, it would require pathfinding to be fixed really really well first. Totally possible that will happen, but if not then it'd be a disaster.

I've had the exact same trouble, the diver will orient towards the moored naval mine, their status actually changes to "fire" and they acknowledge, but do nothing.

@LolaLimelight I don't know about sudosandwich but from the testing I've done today, the update seems to have fixed the problem.

Great update btw!

Yeah, it takes a few before showing up since it doesn't happen regularly with every one.

And "welcome to the arma 2d editor"... Ok? I pretty much exclusively play Arma 2/CO missions that I build in the editor, and I'm very familiar with its glitches- This particular placement bug is worse than Arma 2 baseline.

Having this issue as well- exactly as described.

Maybe. Although why it would, in my case, lock up the game is a bit of a mystery then. Also since most of the other support modules do work, it is somewhat reasonable to bring this one not working to their attention.

If they didn't activate the module yet, then I'm sure the dev team will clear this in about 10 seconds. If not, now they know there might be a problem with it.

I actually had this just happen a few minutes ago. Did the same thing, heard the audio clip play saying the supply drop had been requested and then nothing. I retried previewing the custom mission three times, and on the third time I tried requesting the supply drop, it locked the game.

Look- it's not our job to consider the total feasibility or dependencies that would result in fixing an issue. We're not qualified to make those judgments or criticisms, the dev team is. They work with the engine, they probably know the code well enough that they're sick of it by now, and they're the ones who have the hands-on daily task of implementing fixes features etc.

If the dev team reads these things and decides something isn't feasible for whatever reason- then fair enough. It's their game, it's their job and I know they know this stuff inside-out- esp compared to someone who doesn't work with this code daily. What they don't have time or the ability to do, is run the Alpha/Beta through the kind of trials that a community of players can run it through and then document what happens.

It's great that people are thinking/caring about this stuff so much that they worry about possible dependencies or complications of fixes... But those complications are best weighed by the people who're in charge of hammering the code out and know for sure what those issues are likely to be.

In other words, it's not worth *us* arguing about when it's the dev team who gets to argue about these things.

This is usually an issue, for me, from a fixed firing position (in fact, it just happened again today and from a position of cover). I'm behind an H-barrier or rock, have been in place for a relatively long period of time - so this isn't some instant react to contact situation with people moving to cover- I'm looking down the optic of my weapon putting sustained groups of shots into a target and the idiot AI walks right into my bullets. This happens a hell of a lot more than it should and sometimes with whole groups of AI during an engagement.

I don't really have a problem with the AI crossing in front of me on the move. And during the first few moments of a contact, I clear the arc in front of my weapon to make sure no-one is likely to be in my line of fire because I expect things to be a little chaotic with players/AI reacting to the contact. But once I've done that and I'm sighting down the sights, or especially the optic, my view is restricted to the point where I can't see Pvt SNAFU get up and wander into my bullets until it's too late.

If it really can't be fixed, or reduced, then at least alter the scoring system to award us points for fragging those idiots. OR even better, alter the voice acting to play something other than "Watch your fire"- maybe "Awesome someone finally shot that moron." :-).

There were two big problems with Arma2, controls and an inept AI- the controls have been (mostly) fixed and there's no reason the AI should still be this dumb.

I've had this happen, as a team leader, reacting to contact in both Arma 2 and the Alpha of Arma 3. Even a simple check, initiated by the player's weapon being fired, would help. In other words, if the player's weapon is fired then for X seconds the AI avoids crossing in front of the player. Once X seconds times out, if there hasn't been another shot fired then the AI could cross in front again. Not a perfect solution, but it'd go a long way towards helping fix the problem and it's prob pretty easy.

Oh yeah, and ideally make that true for laser designators being "fired" as well... I haven't done it in this release (but if it happens with rifles I see no reason it wouldn't with laser designators), but nothing is more ridiculous than having Pvt SNAFU meander happily into the targeting beam right after an aircraft has released its ordinance, guiding a JDAM right onto your position for an epic team kill.

I've had countless squad members get "lost" stuck, whatever in buildings in the Alpha- totally like in Arma 2. This is constantly a problem and in combat it results in time and team members lost. One of the problems I've found is that the AI will walk themselves into a structure (or random object) but then not be able to find their way out. In the middle of a firefight, it's beyond game-breaking to have to backtrack and deal with an idiot squad member who can't walk out of the building he walked himself into.

I have to say it- this is really really frustrating for those of us who're big fans of the series and loyal players since OFP days, but for a lot of players who're first trying out the series, or people reviewing the game, this is going to be a deal-breaker. I say this with affection for the series, but AI pathing simply cannot break so often, or so badly.

There is a great script bundle (it does have some bugs but it does it's primary mission perfectly) for Arma by zorilya called simply "garrison script" that resolves a huge number of pathing issues with AI in buildings- so it's not impossible to do. The script is a little buggy I think, in part because it's added on top of the game code and the other AI intelligence mods and not integrated into it.

EDIT: Zorilya has updated his awesome garrison/CQB script that fixes many of these issues so that it's available in Arma 3 (Armaholic should have it if you search "garrison script" & look for his name). An integrated solution/upgrade of the AI is still the better solution and very much needed, but I wanted to give Zorilya credit and offer a good stop-gap solution to frustrated reporters landing on this report.

Or how about a "Follow My Lead" command? That combines a "copy my stance" with a "Don't use cover/bounding" setting? That way, in theory, if the player is rushing forward but is suddenly fired on and dives to the ground, the AI would copy the stance change and not be mowed down.

I think AI performance issues like this are really important to sort out, even though it might seem like minor issues. This is a simulation, so the difference between failure and success can be a single enemy bullet. But the downside to that is that there is much less tolerance in the game for the AI to do stupid things. You *need* the blufor AI to work with you, because the game is so realistic, which means these little AI mistakes cause big problems in missions. Basically, the realism can't be higher than the AI's capabilities to deal with it and that's pretty much what many of these AI issues are about.