COOP : A.I. reaction times really need some overhauling !

First of all dear NWI developers you really did a great job with this awsome game !
You created a fantastic war athmosphere and the possibility to play very nice coop games with 8 people !
Thank you so much for your efforts so far and in the future !
I can´t wait to play other maps on the final version, especially the custom ones from the Insurgency ( 2014 ) game.

There are just a few minor things to get polished and patched and there it is, the successor which is better and brighter and more authentic.

I just have one big wish for the final relase, please do some adjustments to the A.I. behaviour !
There are moments in the game where i cannot believe what has happened in that situation. For example :

  1. ) Directly after the team fullfilled an objective the dead people spawn at a specific point close to the objective.
    Just in this moment those new spawning teammates have a short loading animation for the primary weapon which takes only a few seconds.
    Well, thats not a bad thing, but please don´t allow the Bots to walk to that spawn-spot !.
    You can imagine what has happened.. the bots shot one or two players down before they even can open fire on them , because of the loading animation.
    Very frustrating moments and happening so often on various maps.

2.) The instant 70-150 meter A.I. sniper killshots with 100 % accuracy, within approximatly 50-100 milisecods.
Happened a few times now that i step out of cover and see a bot stepping out of his cover at the exact same time in a big distance and get instantly shot by exact this bot ( i can see his muzzle flash before i die, so it must be him ). The bots have super fast and super accurate hitting skills on great distances. Very frustrating because this is far away from being realistic.

3.) The poor hitting skills of the bots in close combat are still dissapointing a little.
It is way too easy to fight in close combat against the bots because they have too slow reaction times, they don´t use suppression fire and they don´t use cover efficiently.
Sometimes they just wait in a room and stare to the wall just to turn around in the moment the player enters the room which gives the player the time to easily kill the bot.
That´s why Flashbangs are totaly unnecessary in this game ( because of the bad skills of the A.I. in close combat )
Covering each other seems not to be implemented. One gets the impression that each bot fights for himself. No team tactics .. just walking in a row and then getting killed one by one... no supression fire. Dissapointing as i said.

What they really do well is attacking an objective at the same time from different doors.
Their entry timing is excellent !
But they act slow in such situations which makes them easy to kill targets.

When i compare the A.I. with those of Ghost Recon: Wildlands i must come to the conclusion, that in Sandstorm the A.I. could be much more agile at close combat while their distant shooting skills are overpowered in most cases. They definatly need an overhauling.

Making the bots more dangerous also would reduce the speed of players with run and gun tactics and force them to play as a squad or team.

By the way ... i have the impression, that the actual generation of kids/young people don´t have the patience and teamspirit to play such games as Sandstorm like it´s meant to be played.
Slow paced, covering each other and still quick when it depends on ( clearing buildings, moving from safe cover to cover )
Many of them are running around like headless chicken just to be first on objectives and making the most points by doing so.
Those selfish guys want to be everywhere at the same time running from entrance to entrance to get the most kills instead of just waiting at a specific point and defend the objective so that the whole team survives (without getting shot in the back or getting flanked). I hope my words make some people think about how they act and hopefully inspire them to play for the survival of the team.
Not only keeping the kill ratio high should be considered, but more to keep the the death ratio of each teammember as low as possible should be in main focus of the players.
Protect each other like it would be in a real combat situation.
I know it´s a game .. it should be fun and bla bla bla ( so many times i heard this bullshit ) .. ..but hey .. the realistic tactics are so rewarding.
Succesfully reaching the mission objectives with few to none deaths of teammembers is so satisfying.

last edited by GSG_9_LIGHTNING

Minor fixes for the AI is really understating it. The AI is broke. That and making the game not use 98%+ vram are honestly the two largest problem this game has so far.

Running around like headless chickens lol, that about sums it up. And then there are the people desperate to be top of the score board and are on a mad sprint ahead to the next objective often sturring up chaos for the rest of the team coming later having taken the time to re-supply. I think they need to change the scoring so it more heavily rewards team play (not sure how that would be accomplished). Maybe make the objective score dependent on how much of the team is at it, if there is only one person at the objective and plenty of team members are still alive then the score is minimal. Also do something about people blowing objectives while someone is trying to 'wire' it. Team damage dealt should either hurt score or get an auto kick after a period or both.

I bump this one up 😉

NWI Developers , please listen to what we are telling you about A.I. !!!
The A.I. behaviour is the most important element of a coop game, please don´t mess it up ! We really would like to see progress in this sector.

last edited by GSG_9_LIGHTNING

Yep, the AI behaves very erratic. So, let's talk about Artificial Intelligence before it becomes Artificial Idiocy. 😉