AI teammates need FOCUS | Forums

[vvhorus]

Hey all!

I usually find my AI teammates somewhat reliable. But it seems to me that all three of them suffer from a severe case of ADD. They get distracted pretty easily by anything. As an example: If I'm in a convoy side mission and I'm in pursuit, the guys would just shoot enemies on the side of the road or passing vehicles instead of the armored vehicle that's right in front of us shredding our vehicle into little pieces. Or, when doing radio defense side missions, all three would wonder far from the mission area in pursuit of a single enemy, totally ignoring the incoming chopper and two armored vehicles which I'm left to deal with by myself. It's frustrating to be overwhelmed by enemies while the AI are off chasing butterflies.

A few suggestions, if I may:

1. If the player is engaged in a pursuit, have the AI focus on that pursuit and ignore enemies that might appear on the side of the road/buildings/other vehicles which are not related.
2. If the player is shot at, have the AI immediately return fire without waiting for an order while just sitting there watching the player die.
3. Have the AI maintain close proximity to the player at all times unless they're specifically ordered to hold position.
4. If an enemy combatant gets too close to an AI member while the player is doing recon (drone/binoculars/scope), have that AI do a stealth takedown automatically.
5. As a segue to #4, add a "stealth takedown" option in the command wheel so we don't go guns blazing everywhere. Also, let us decide whether we could do sync shot or sync stealth takedown.

The game's been out for almost a month and most of us day-1 players have already either finished the campaign or are close to finishing it. I'm honestly not expecting these suggestions being added to the game at this point, but maybe consider them for newer/future players so they don't be equally frustrated...

[DanHibikiFanXM]

What's funny is that basically every GR prior to this game gave you the ability to more effectively control your teammates - especially when it came to directing their fire. A lot of the things you're asking for were actually even in Future Soldier. Wildlands' command functionality and AI have a lot of problems directly caused by a badly designed command system that is too vague, simplistic, and inefficient for proper tactical play. What really kills me though is that essentially there is very little difference between the way your squad behaved in FS as opposed to Wildlands - but the developers took away that game's speed and efficiency. FS's command system was unengaging due to its total simplicity, but you could at least perform sync shots with greater ease and have the ability to direct your team's focus...I also remember teammates killing sync shot tagged enemies if you were about to be spotted (though my memory is a little fuzzy, I could be remembering that wrong).

[vvhorus]

What's funny is that basically every GR prior to this game gave you the ability to more effectively control your teammates - especially when it came to directing their fire. A lot of the things you're asking for were actually even in Future Soldier. Wildlands' command functionality and AI have a lot of problems directly caused by a badly designed command system that is too vague, simplistic, and inefficient for proper tactical play. What really kills me though is that essentially there is very little difference between the way your squad behaved in FS as opposed to Wildlands - but the developers took away that game's speed and efficiency. FS's command system was unengaging due to its total simplicity, but you could at least perform sync shots with greater ease and have the ability to direct your team's focus...I also remember teammates killing sync shot tagged enemies if you were about to be spotted (though my memory is a little fuzzy, I could be remembering that wrong).

I wonder what happened, then...

[BlitzBoy526]

More on the stealth take down idea, I would like it if they told you they had a hostage, and you would be able to tell him to go to an area to hide the body, and knock them out. I would also like if they would surround you and protect you if you interrogate somebody.

[DanHibikiFanXM]

I wonder what happened, then...

I wish I knew. When FS was in development the reasons we were given was that the developers didn't want players to have to micromanage the team which to me means "it's too hard to shoot things and command people at the same time." So in FS we were given what I call the "Easy Button" which only allowed you to tag targets for sync shots during stealth sections, or to give focus fire orders in open combat. It was brain dead easy, and required no real tactical planning outside of remaining undetected. The benefits of such a simplistic system though was that it was very fast and efficient due to the mind numbing simplicity.

GRW functions primarily the same way as FS, but with the addition of almost pointless move, hold, and regroup orders tied to a clunky/unresponsive radial menu. Your squadmates run around like maniacs still in open combat, but we've lost the ability to quickly give a focus fire order - now the same tagging you would have done in FS just issues another sync shot order. We also gained a stupid, video-gamey, and arbitrary sync shot cool down that makes zero sense.

This game failed incredibly hard when it comes to squad commands. I really wish we would have had a more thoughtful design that would give you, myself, and others more tactical depth.

[vvhorus]

I wish I knew. When FS was in development the reasons we were given was that the developers didn't want players to have to micromanage the team which to me means "it's too hard to shoot things and command people at the same time." So in FS we were given what I call the "Easy Button" which only allowed you to tag targets for sync shots during stealth sections, or to give focus fire orders in open combat. It was brain dead easy, and required no real tactical planning outside of remaining undetected. The benefits of such a simplistic system though was that it was very fast and efficient due to the mind numbing simplicity.

GRW functions primarily the same way as FS, but with the addition of almost pointless move, hold, and regroup orders tied to a clunky/unresponsive radial menu. Your squadmates run around like maniacs still in open combat, but we've lost the ability to quickly give a focus fire order - now the same tagging you would have done in FS just issues another sync shot order. We also gained a stupid, video-gamey, and arbitrary sync shot cool down that makes zero sense.

This game failed incredibly hard when it comes to squad commands. I really wish we would have had a more thoughtful design that would give you, myself, and others more tactical depth.

It was probably an attempt to dumb down the command wheel to appeal to a broader audience. Maybe each difficulty should have a different command wheel setup for those who want more control over the AI functions...

[Rufus37]

2. If the player is shot at, have the AI immediately return fire without waiting for an order while just sitting there watching the player die.
3. Have the AI maintain close proximity to the player at all times unless they're specifically ordered to hold position.
4. If an enemy combatant gets too close to an AI member while the player is doing recon (drone/binoculars/scope), have that AI do a stealth takedown automatically.
5. As a segue to #4, add a "stealth takedown" option in the command wheel so we don't go guns blazing everywhere. Also, let us decide whether we could do sync shot or sync stealth takedown.

The game's been out for almost a month and most of us day-1 players have already either finished the campaign or are close to finishing it. I'm honestly not expecting these suggestions being added to the game at this point, but maybe consider them for newer/future players so they don't be equally frustrated...

Listed here are main my complaints. It is pretty frustrating that your AI teammates can call out enemy combatants here and there, but if you are actively infiltrating a base and fail to see/mark/notice an enemy who walks up on you, your team is too busy picking their nose to outright drop the enemy dead quietly or at the very least give you a heads up of the fact that you're about to be riddled with bullets. Just as equally annoying is the fact that once you do order them to fire they transition from being oblivious idiots to gung ho kill em all rambos without a care in the world of sticking relatively close and fighting as an actual squad.

[Flaw3dGenius23]

I wonder what happened, then...

Open world happened.

[AI BLUEFOX]

It's nothing to do with open world, it was a gameplay design decision and vvhorus has called it right in my opinion. A deeper level of control would have made the player responsible for where the AI were and removed the need for such things as being "invisible" to the enemy. The AI are far, far away from being as dumb as people suggest, but by trying to make them do everything the Devs have exposed their limitations in doing anything.

Giving the human player more control and responsibility would have prevented the AI being judged on their mistakes.

[Schicic]

It's nothing to do with open world, it was a gameplay design decision and vvhorus has called it right in my opinion. A deeper level of control would have made the player responsible for where the AI were and removed the need for such things as being "invisible" to the enemy. The AI are far, far away from being as dumb as people suggest, but by trying to make them do everything the Devs have exposed their limitations in doing anything.

Giving the human player more control and responsibility would have prevented the AI being judged on their mistakes.

The patch changed it to where:

-if your AI teammates take a syncshot near enemies, they get you suspected and they open fire.
-If enemsies see you AI after you tell them to "Hold". They open fire.
-If enemies see your AI after you tell to "Move To", they open fire.
-Your AI seems to open fire more now while you are driving/flying and are forced to repeatedly stop the assault

Although the patch allows you to keep them further away from you now by saying go here or hold, it is better to just let them follow you. If you let them follow you then they will not be seen even 1m away from enemies. I have even seen enemies "push" aside my AI teammates while they were following me without giving an alert. They need major work.