[Help!] Dumb actor? (Actor doesn't execute plans)

[DogEggFive]

One of my actors (friendly) seems to be kind of broken. It seems like either he doesn't execute his assigned trigger plans, or plans that should be assigned to him doesn't actually get assigned. For instance, he doesn't change stance when he should, or move to usable defense stations when a defend zone plan is/should be assigned to his team by a script block. (In the same script block I assign plans to other teams, and they execute their trigger plans fine)

I threw this actor into another team to see what happens, and he still seemed broken as he & his new team mate failed to execute some plan steps. (They didn't move close together as other actors do (I didn't have Formation step for any of them), and they got stuck on a Cover plan step w/duration followed by a Path; they shoulda stopped there for only a few seconds, but they didn't move until I nudged a guy who stopped further back towards the other guy who was sitting on the cover arc.)

 

When I check his AI status via console command names, then aiinfo, his field stays "empty" for the most part while his teammate gets "cover" or "defend station" (forgot the exact wordings) and such.

Has anyone else encountered this problem, and if so, do you know what causes this and/or a possible solutions?

 

This actor is mentioned multiple times in the script for later part of the mission (as are other actors), so I'd prefer not to delete this guy and create a new one, if possible.

 

My mission has about 50 active actors on startup where this issue or glitch occurs (I have many more actors hidden & AI toggled off; they'll show up once the first wave of enemies are defeated), so I suspect that may be contributing to or causing the issue. I'm also playing on a pretty old & weak laptop, and that could be another cause, but it usually runs the game fine even with missions with a lot of actors & such, including this one I'm making (except for these issues of course). Similar thing happened with another team in the same mission (this one's enemy), where they didn't execute plan the normal (non-trigger) plan assigned under the team, which should make them walk. Instead they just stayed and did nothing.

Thanks in advance.

Edited August 5 by DogEggFive
Typo, etc.

[wombat50]

One thing that comes to mind is the map. A few community made maps have little or no pathing for the AI. I'd say all the maps in the official game don't have this issue.
To test, play the map with some AI teammates. If they follow waypoints you set the pathing is in place.

On occasion, AI teammates will remain prone when the game begins and remain that way when waypoints are set for them.  I have to soul switch to them to get them to change to a different stance. Not sure the cause of this,

I may be wrong but replacing or substituting a different actor for the broken one should be doable in Igor or editing the .mis file with a text editor without affecting all the plan steps you have in place. One more possibility is canceling any other plans for the next one to work.

 

[DogEggFive]

Thanks wombat,

I haven't tried replacing the actor (atr file) yet, so I'll see if that works.

As for other possible causes, it's one of the official maps (High Sierra from IT), so I want to think it's less likely to be the culprit... but I suppose map geometry or something could very well be doing something funny there.

I've tried the "canceling previous plan before assigning a new one" (Abort > Execute) trick in the script, and put a plan step that would force him to change the stance in order to see if the actor was executing the new plan, but he just wasn't doing it for some reason. Come to think of it, the stations/their placement could be contributing to this also.

Edited August 6 by DogEggFive
Minor changes

[wombat50]

Getting them to man a defensive station can be finicky.

Agreed, High Sierra map or any other official maps don't have pathing problems.
The following was posted by someone else about manning a defensive station with a fixed MG so may not be the exact situation but worth a look.

Place a stationary gun somewhere on the map and place an actor very little behind it. Works in corridors, outside, in water.
Then make a plan for the actor:
Movement ROE All Costs
Stance locked into Upright
Alertness locked into Combat
Combat ROE Suppress
Cover
Note: the cover arc must be less than 90 degrees and it should be symmetrical to the facing of the gun!
Add a defense station, same arcs as the cover.
Give the actor noweapon.kit, he is more likely to cling on to the MG. If you sneak up on him from behind he will unman the gun but have no weapon to kill you, good for taking MG Gunners as Hostages.
Give him a weapon and he will not attempt to use it with all the above settings, however if you sneak up behind him and he knows you're there, or you fire at him from behind and just miss, he will turn around and use his weapon!
Give the plan to a whole team of 6 and watch 1 man take the MG. When he dies another team member will try to take his position!
Sorry to go through it all again, but with these settings your MG Gunners will never fail! I've placed them in the most ridiculous positions and they are still as active as ever.
As Serellen said, just try moving the actor slightly, I know if he is a little too forward, he doesn't work the MG.

Edited August 6 by wombat50

[RussiaGhost]

On 05/08/2023 at 17:53, DogEggFive said:

One of my actors (friendly) seems to be kind of broken. It seems like either he doesn't execute his assigned trigger plans, or plans that should be assigned to him doesn't actually get assigned. For instance, he doesn't change stance when he should, or move to usable defense stations when a defend zone plan is/should be assigned to his team by a script block. (In the same script block I assign plans to other teams, and they execute their trigger plans fine)

I threw this actor into another team to see what happens, and he still seemed broken as he & his new team mate failed to execute some plan steps. (They didn't move close together as other actors do (I didn't have Formation step for any of them), and they got stuck on a Cover plan step w/duration followed by a Path; they shoulda stopped there for only a few seconds, but they didn't move until I nudged a guy who stopped further back towards the other guy who was sitting on the cover arc.)

 

When I check his AI status via console command names, then aiinfo, his field stays "empty" for the most part while his teammate gets "cover" or "defend station" (forgot the exact wordings) and such.

Has anyone else encountered this problem, and if so, do you know what causes this and/or a possible solutions?

 

This actor is mentioned multiple times in the script for later part of the mission (as are other actors), so I'd prefer not to delete this guy and create a new one, if possible.

 

My mission has about 50 active actors on startup where this issue or glitch occurs (I have many more actors hidden & AI toggled off; they'll show up once the first wave of enemies are defeated), so I suspect that may be contributing to or causing the issue. I'm also playing on a pretty old & weak laptop, and that could be another cause, but it usually runs the game fine even with missions with a lot of actors & such, including this one I'm making (except for these issues of course). Similar thing happened with another team in the same mission (this one's enemy), where they didn't execute plan the normal (non-trigger) plan assigned under the team, which should make them walk. Instead they just stayed and did nothing.

Thanks in advance.

Hello. Attach mission file here to see how it works.

Edited August 16 by RussiaGhost

[DogEggFive]

Thanks for the replies to both, and sorry for my late response. Been a little occupied with things.

 

I've played around with the mission since my last comment, and it seems the issues are mostly gone at least for now. Not sure what fixed them exactly... I no longer have the exact copy of the mission, and I'm unable to replicate them, but I suspect that the issue where the team stops moving was probably caused by the (large) distance between actors in the same team.

 

I did some testings on a blank mission, and found that when actors in the same team are too far apart from each other, they fail to regroup and fail to execute their Path plan step (which inevitably caused them to get stuck on that step). I guess it messes up AI path finding or something.

Given the team I described in my original post started to follow their assigned path again after I nudged one of the members closer to the other one (this was in the older version of the mission), I think it's pretty likely that this was in fact the cause or one of the causes of the issue.

 

I think it's also possible that it was a result of a simple oversight, though. Something like "Movement ROE set to Hold when it should've been AAC" for instance--I've noticed that I did this with some enemy teams that weren't moving.

*On a related note, it seems Movement ROE "Advance" can make a team stop moving, if there's a firefight going on elsewhere--even when the team itself is not involved in it or have a line-of-sight to the enemy. Not sure if it happens only when the teams involved are in the same Platoon. This was probably not the case with my original problem however, as there was no active fights going on.

 

As for the defense station thing, I'm still not sure what was causing it. I've applied some of the techniques described in the comment from wombat (like moving the actor and setting their Movement ROE to AAC), and while I can't say for sure, it seems to have improved their behavior a bit. (Thanks for bringing it up!)

I might also try using Cover Arc as a replacement for Defend Zone later. I've noticed that actors sometimes wonder off and away from the stations within their assigned zone, which sometimes causes an issue.

 

I hope to upload the mission at some point, preferably when it's a bit closer to completion. It's becoming more of an actual mission. It's a part of a hero replacement mod I'm working on based on Clear and Present Danger (both the novel & movie). It doesn't have any new models or textures, so nothing too exciting though.

[wombat50]

To me a good mission is the most important. New skins , weapons and new textures of any kind are icing on the cake.

[RussiaGhost]

I tried to make a squad on the whole map and put a path for them. They gather and run along the route.

[DogEggFive]

9 hours ago, wombat50 said:

To me a good mission is the most important. New skins , weapons and new textures of any kind are icing on the cake.

Glad to hear that. (assuming this one turns out well)

I might ask for some opinion from the community at some point.

[DogEggFive]

9 minutes ago, RussiaGhost said:

I tried to make a squad on the whole map and put a path for them. They gather and run along the route.

Huh, interesting... it must depends on various factors. Where did the team regroup in this one?

I did the experiment on the Red Square map with all actors in the open section, and I just ran the game again and they still stopped. I'll get the mis file and post it here.

[RussiaGhost]

1 hour ago, DogEggFive said:

Huh, interesting... it must depends on various factors. Where did the team regroup in this one?

I did the experiment on the Red Square map with all actors in the open section, and I just ran the game again and they still stopped. I'll get the mis file and post it here.

They all ran to the beginning of the path and then ran along the route.

[DogEggFive]

9 minutes ago, RussiaGhost said:

They all ran to the beginning of the path and then ran along the route.

Hmm... I've added another team on my test map, and that team did work ok just like that.

Here's my test mission. Hope you can download it outside Discord.
https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/1120346819680022598/1143621374884204644/test_path_finding_2.mis

Team 1 (actors named 1-x) stops after a while, and their aiinfo section goes *empty*. Team 2 regroups and follows their path.

[wombat50]

Downloaded

One team never made it to a waypoint. As you said traveled part way and stopped.
A team on "Bored Alertness" are somewhat unresponsive in my estimation.
I would only use it if I wanted a team that was easy to get around in stealth.

In past experience, I have struggled with some teams to get them to move at all.
Afraid I don't have any guidelines other than look at other RSE or community made missions to see what attributes they give AI.
Or in the Basic_Igor_Guide.pdf attributes you can give AI are explained starting on page 23 under "Intermediate Planning"

[RussiaGhost]

I tested this situation and this is what I found: If alertness is not set as combat, they will go to points if the distance to the commander is approximately less than 10m + - another 20 -25m from where they can still run. If the distance is greater than the noi will stand still. If you make combat alertness, they will always run even from the end of the map.

If you pass like this, 2 soldiers will run 10 meters and that's it. If you push it to the commander less than 10m, they will walk around the points normally.