Combine Tactics and AI

[screechrocket]

Ok i'm pretty bad at seeing AI in games, mostly cuz i guess i'm to busy shooting at them to see what everyone is doing.

but ok what kinda of tactics do the combine use? i see them hide behind stuff sometime and use hand signals and use grenades/manhacks. But it seems like they charge me alot and the guys the throw nades and use manhacks seem to be the same guys everytime, so it seems a bit scripted to me. And what to the hand signals mean?

Also if a scanner sees you does it let people know where you are? and when the combine die does that sound alert other combine near by if they didn't already see u? Flares also seem scripted as i see the same guys shot them off. I've only played the game a few times and the first time or two i didn't really look for this stuff. But i just beat it on hard and they seemed different, as in smarter than normal and i noticed some stuff.


But basically how does the combine AI work and what tactics do they use?

 

[ríomhaire]

The combine use many tactics such as these

Falling back when wounded

They actualy do and also when they are under heavy fire and their allies are all behind them. (Found that out on the last level of Sandtraps)

I once had a group of them fall back (to where I couldn't see them), then one threw a grenade at me to get me out of hidding and when I ran out they ambushed me! Shotgun pwned!!! (During Follow Freeman or Anticitizen 1)

 

[GonzoBabbleshit]

The flares are scripted, that's for sure...

I couldn't really tell you a great deal more to be honest!

 

[Epsi]

The scanners in one of the later levels communicate with the striders, i'm fairly sure. I was hiding from the strider, and a scanner snapped me, and i swear the strider then knew where i was.

 

[screechrocket]

cool thanks, keep 'em coming guys. On hard i think i kept their heads down by letting a whole clip out on them. they were on the check point wall in anticitizen 1. One of my squadmates said cover me so i laid down some suppressing fire, the combine seemed to duck and she came across the street with out being fired on.


I dont know if this was really what the AI did or they all just happend to be ducking at the same time i was firing at them. this happen to anyone else? like i said i'm not good at reading AI.


What do the hand signals mean?

edit: that happened to me too, Epsi.

 

[ríomhaire]

the hand signals mean, get the hell over here I'm being shot at!
The manhacks are also scripted

 

[GonzoBabbleshit]

the hand signals mean, get the hell over here I'm being shot at!

It's funny cause it's true

 

[Cypher19]

the hand signals mean, get the hell over here I'm being shot at!
The manhacks are also scripted

The manhacks are not scripted. It's just that the NPC is spawned with the ability to deploy a manhack, and feels that the best time to do it is when they know you're near.

 

[Vegeta897]

The scanners in one of the later levels communicate with the striders, i'm fairly sure. I was hiding from the strider, and a scanner snapped me, and i swear the strider then knew where i was.

Nope. Striders walk on scripted paths. They won't change path because they saw you or something.

 

[Lahire149]

I think the A.I. is too defensive, it needs agression...i personlaly prefer the DOOM3 demo's A.I. And they are all too weak. I have never experienced anythign like what you guys have said.
As far as the hand motions go...
Hand Motion= "Shoot me now; I'm vunerable to attack because i'm too preoccupied with this useless animation!"

 

[screechrocket]

AI doesn't mean that the NPCs will be perfect, infact i would hope it would make the make mistakes. Like they have two choices to make and sometimes they pick the wrong/worst one and other times they pick the best one, just like humans do.

I think the hand signals are cool, plus they may mean more than just hey i need help, though probably not. it adds some realism to the game since real soliders use hand signals, plus its like a 1 sec animation and i've never seen a combine do it that was with in range for that to matter much, unless i had the magnum out but even if i did i'm a terrible shot with it lol.


how well do you guys think they work together?

 

[itsmygame]

Well, I found that they A.I. was decent. Not exactly award winning, but better than most games. In fact better than almost all games. :/

 

[LittleB]

I noticed when there was more then one, one would stand and face me, and the others would run around the sides and flank me and shoot from behind buildings and stuff

 

[Fliko]

Watch them, and listen to them,
their AI is pretty advance for our technology actually, easy, but yet, very smart

 

[Mechagodzilla]

The type-2 scanners definitely alert striders to where you are.
Their patrol paths might be laid out, but their machinegun fire is not.

If a scanner snaps you after escaping the strider in the foggy traffic tunnel, the strider will immediately start firing at you if it has a clear line of sight.

 

[eatbugs]

Scanners, by far in a way the most annoying enemy in the whole game. The way they get in your road and all that

 

[Flyingdebris]

yeah, in the blasted open building that has the strider patrolling outside of it in the anti citizen level. Everytime one of the type 2 scanners spots you, the damn strider goes nuts. Once you kill the scanner and lay low for a bit it calms down until you are spotted again or attack the strider

 

[HadouKen24]

I have only two gripes about the AI. When the fire, they're too inaccurate. These are trained soldiers, so they should be able to hit you a little more easily. (The CP need not be improved in this way, since they presumably don't have as much training or experience.) They're also a little too aggressive. They rush right into your line of fire. They don't hunker down and wait for you enough.

 

[Sparta]

I have only two gripes about the AI. When the fire, they're too inaccurate. These are trained soldiers, so they should be able to hit you a little more easily. (The CP need not be improved in this way, since they presumably don't have as much training or experience.) They're also a little too aggressive. They rush right into your line of fire. They don't hunker down and wait for you enough.

Yeah i agree about the aiming thing. Apparently the "rushing" thing is done because it makes it easier to hit them with the gravity gun. If they were ducking and weaving all the time it would be harder to get them with the gravity-gun.

 

[Defpotec22]

i've had several occasions where a combine troop in battle ignores the rest of his buddies and me and stares at a wall. they flank well though

 

[Danimal]

They usually attempt to destroy phys_objects that you use as cover.

"5... 4... 3... 2... 1... Destroy his cover!" - Combine Solider.

The snipers are pertty well done in an AI sense, if they see you run behind a filing cabinet, they will fire it. The power of the bullet sends it flying. They also try and destroy everything that is destroyable after seeing you.

Them combine have alot of tactics if you give them a chance.

 

[Angry Lawyer]

Scanners are cleverer than you think:

//------------------------------------------------------------------------------
// Purpose: Request help inspecting from other squad members
//------------------------------------------------------------------------------
void CNPC_CScanner::RequestInspectSupport(void)
{
	if (m_pSquad)
	{
		AISquadIter_t iter;
		for (CAI_BaseNPC *pSquadMember = m_pSquad->GetFirstMember( &iter ); pSquadMember; pSquadMember = m_pSquad->GetNextMember( &iter ) )
		{
			if (pSquadMember != this)
			{
				if (GetTarget())
				{
					pSquadMember->DispatchInteraction(g_interactionScannerSupportEntity,((void *)((CBaseEntity*)GetTarget())),this);
				}
				else
				{
					pSquadMember->DispatchInteraction(g_interactionScannerSupportPosition,((void *)m_vInspectPos.Base()),this);
				}
			}
		}
	}
}

I can guess what that code is used for.

-Angry Lawyer

 

[GonzoBabbleshit]

I can't

 

[PvtRyan]

Another thing what Combine does is when you're on the side of a door opening camping for Combine to walk in, they don't simply walk in and try to kill you. One strafes in, empties some rounds, and quickly strafes out, and then one of his teammates attempts it. They're too fast to hit with enough rounds except with a shotgun then.

I also built a maze map, where one group in a squad would attack you full frontal, and throw a grenade to drive you back, where a shotgun guy was waiting for you, because he took another route to flank you.

 

[Angry Lawyer]

I can't

Look at the annotation.

// Purpose: Request help inspecting from other squad members

-Angry Lawyer

 

[Nephtis]

If you block a door with a table, or something really heavy with your gravity gun and place it behind the door. The combine will try to smash open the door, if they don't previal and the room your in has windows they will nade you and shoot you.
Most of the sniper scenes are scripted, they are scripted to shoot a sign if you're near it.

 

[screechrocket]

Another thing what Combine does is when you're on the side of a door opening camping for Combine to walk in, they don't simply walk in and try to kill you. One strafes in, empties some rounds, and quickly strafes out, and then one of his teammates attempts it. They're too fast to hit with enough rounds except with a shotgun then.

I also built a maze map, where one group in a squad would attack you full frontal, and throw a grenade to drive you back, where a shotgun guy was waiting for you, because he took another route to flank you.

is there anyway we could get this map? or i could make one myself? i've never moded but i've use in game map makers.

Does the combine do what you said they did more than once on your map?

 

[Solver]

One of the best Combine things is flanking. If you see a Combine run into a room and you stand at the door and wait for him it's a bad idea - the Combine will have taken the other exit and will kick you from behind.

 

[Pesmerga]

A "training" map with five or six combine elites running around together in an enclosed maze would be awesome to see how they react. Of course you can't just throw in some combine elites and expect them to conform to the geometry perfectly, but that's where nodes come in handy. I'd like to see exactly how powerful the AI is against single targets and how effective they are with their weapons. For instance, a group of five combine elites, three equipped with AR and the other two with shotguns. I'd like to see also, how masses of say, zombies, react in a city. 50-80 zombies roaming around a city, taking different routes maybe to avoid the high concentrated zombie areas.

 

[SystemShock2]

The combine are great at flanking. In highway 17, i was in a shed with a gaint door on one side and a small one on the other and there was a truck in the middle. There were about 6 combine and i saw them outside so i ran in the shed the small door way. Two combine would pop in and out of that door and distracted me and then, all of the sudden i hear a shotgun blast and im dead. A combine was standing right behind me and i had no clue.

 

[Solver]

The combine are great at flanking. In highway 17, i was in a shed with a gaint door on one side and a small one on the other and there was a truck in the middle. There were about 6 combine and i saw them outside so i ran in the shed the small door way. Two combine would pop in and out of that door and distracted me and then, all of the sudden i hear a shotgun blast and im dead. A combine was standing right behind me and i had no clue.

Yeah, they act very well in environments like that. Same for when you hide behind crates - they will get destroyed. I love how the physics influence gameplay, and the fact that your cover can be blown, literally, just rules.

 

[Ultimape]

" ent_fire combine_s SetSquad *insertsquadhere* " <- setting up spawned combine (or citizens,etc), to be on a squad really increase their effectiveness. ITs really cool to sent a whole bunch of citizens and combine against each other, moving around, puling back, flanking, taking cover.

They are just horibly inaccurate with their gun fire.

 

[Solver]

I assume accuracy can be improved. It's probably a variable somewhere, possibly compiled in the source. There were accuracy variables as far ago as Quake 3.

 

[Marx! II]

I recall in Highway 17, the part wherein they knock down the power lines, a few Combine hide in and around the house. Having quite low health, I enjoyed a particularly tense few minutes chasing the bastards around the yard before one of them wised up and shotgunned me from inside.
Point being, they have quite good AI in the right situations.

 

[theotherguy]

I once turned on godmode to test out AI effectiveness, and I was impressed with some features and not impressed with others. The combine troops are very good at moving around to where they can shoot you, i.e if you are standing behind a metal pipe, the soldier will move to the right or left to get a good shot at you; (something which I thought was very impressive) also, I decided to hide in a cargo container, and crouched in the corner of the container. The troops did not try to enter the container, as I would have expected, but instead one troop ran out in front of it and popped off a few shots at me, and then he ran out of my line of fire and his position was taken over by another combine soldier, who ran from the other direction. He too took a few shots and then ran off to reload. They continued cycling like this until one of them decided to throw in a grenade.

Once the grenade came into the container, I ran out of it, and was quickly killed by the Combine troops who were sitting on either side of the container and waiting for me to come out.

A part that I found unimpressive, however, is when a soldier ran into a small room to take cover, and I killed all of his friends. He stayed in that little room, presumably waiting for me to enter...so Instead I blocked the doorway with a bunch of physics objects. The soldier seemed completley oblivious to the objects, and just stood there looking at me through the spaces, not even trying to move the objects. After about a minute of just looking at the soldier sitting there dumbfounded, I left the area and presumably that combine soldier never could figure out how to get out of that room.

 

[screechrocket]

I guess if he had low health he didn't want to be aggressive, so he waited. di you tried shooting at him at all?


Like i said before AI doesn't always mean they try to kill you. i think i would be realistic if AI makes some soliders run and hide for you so they dont die, i mean people in real life do that.

But then again when have the combine ever shown they cared more about not dying then shooting gordon? I guess in this case we can say that this was bad AI.

 

[Laivasse]

I guess if he had low health he didn't want to be aggressive, so he waited. di you tried shooting at him at all?


Like i said before AI doesn't always mean they try to kill you. i think i would be realistic if AI makes some soliders run and hide for you so they dont die, i mean people in real life do that.

But then again when have the combine ever shown they cared more about not dying then shooting gordon? I guess in this case we can say that this was bad AI.

Not really, I'm pretty sure they do run away with their tail between their legs sometimes. I replayed the shootout near the bridge forcefield with the APC power supply many times, trying different tactics. Twice I ended up with one heavily wounded Combine soldier left, but nowhere to be seen. One of those times I spent ages looking for him and it turns out he was hiding just inside the doorway to the barn. Hiding is the only word you can use because there was nothing blocking his way, and no reason why he wouldn't have come out to search for me, because he most certainly had spotted me once and I'd been making a lot of noise killing his buddies.

He died very easily and I assumed the AI had decided not to have him attack because he was on death's door.

 

[Lahire149]

I think the A.I. is poor in open spaces, but when in places like highway 17 and you're in a house surrounded by combine, they can have very good tactics.

 

[Sparta]

I'm up and down about the A.I. When it reacts, its often pretty clever. But it will take way too long to react. Unless its working in teams, then the A.I is really good and they spread out and flank you pretty damn fast.

 

[Jintor]

I was using tactics of bottlenecks and ambushes, so when i decided to hunker down behind cover and see the AI in action, i was slightly surprised.

Besides the much vaunted 'flush him out!' action which they employed, they contineously jumped out of doorways to fire, fire, fire, they'd jump back in, i'd run after them, look around - no-one there! and BANG! shotgun in my back.

Really, really good at flanking - but as far as i can see they can't see phys_objects as anything besides cover. Using them to block movement is beyond them.

And why have the whole 'make it easy for the g-gun' on hard mode as well? Hard mode is hardmode, after all...