Black op vs. Snipers

[The-Architect]

I have a little problem with my Sniper and a group of black ops.

I have a killing ground which, when entered should cause  my sniper to fire at my player controlled Black op. Only its dark and the sniper can't see him.

I've tried using the reveal command, and also, knowsabout, dowatch folloewed by to target and dofire.

I can make the Black op go overt by making him fire but he has to have an un-silenced weapon to do so and that is not acceptable in the mission.

Any ideas on how I can get the sniper to fire at him?

Cheers.

[macguba]

It's odd that he doesn't fire if you have done reveal, doTarget and doFire in combination.      Give NVGs to the shooter.    Increase the shooter's skill.    Test it with different setTerrainGrid settings, the target might be slightly "hidden".   Move the shooter slightly, in case foliage or ground is in his way, and Preview the mission as the shooter so you know for sure he has ammo.  

If all else fails have somebody pop flares over the area for some reason, or maybe the target triggers a flaretrap.

[THobson]

Do flares actually help AI to see?  

[General Barron]

I've had trouble with getting snipers to fire on units in the past as well. Basically, it seems that if he is further than about 200 meters away, he isn't that likely to shoot at the unit, even with reveal + dotarget + dofire + perfect visibility. I believe this is mainly a problem with the unit's config, since, as I'm sure you've noticed, the AI can't see very well past a couple hundred yards. When playing the game with a game config that sets the AI viewdistance to something more realistic, things are much different, with snipers as well as everyone else.

[macguba]

Do flares actually help AI to see?  

I believe so, yes, but I haven't done any tests.

Snipers can shoot you from 1000m (it's happened to me) but they can also be irritatingly hopeless in the 200m-500m range... beyond that you don't mind so much if they don't fire straight away.

My impression that having the target in the field of view of the sniper for a long time seems to help.   That is, they are just very slow at noticing you.

[THobson]

Being on the recieving end of snipers in macguba's Un-impossible mission I must say I had not noticed their reluctance to fire!  All they seemed to need was for me to fire a noisy weapon and they would then start poping away from way beyond where I could see them - even with binoculars, and they were astonishingly good shots.

On the flares: I have used them in a mission and nearly took them out because they seemed to help me much more than they helped the AI, in fact I did not notice the AI performing better because of them.  I have not done any real testing, it is just an impression I got.

[ruff]

whats the knows about command? can someone plz enlighten me
really wanna know what it does
and see if it could help my mission

[macguba]

toadlife wrote a piece on knowsAbout, its in the Ed Depot somewhere.

When you want to learn about a command, always check the online version of the comref, which may have helpful comments; the old unofficial comref, which gives a different take on it;  and the FAQ.

[Sui]

I suggest try giving the sniper a spotter team member, who carries binocs.

I've noticed that a sniper team seems to be far more effective than a single sniper... just bear in mind you may want to:

"_x disableAI {TARGET}" foreach units group

so they don't go chasing after you...

[dmakatra]

FYI, the reveal command is one of the most useless commands in the game. It's filled with so many bugs. Try using reveal and dowatch then do an internal view with the camera on that dude and you'll see what I mean...

:beat: *Gets Shot* :beat:

[Wadmann]

I agree with Sui that adding another member to act as a spotter will be most helpful. If you are not adverse to adding an(other) addon, try Unnamed's AI Forward Observer & Mortar Pack available here. If you use these guys, you will find that snipers ang MGs will engage out to around 1000m.

Try the sniper demo in the pack to see how well they operate in conjunction with his observers.

                                                                   Wadmann

[Tyger]

okay, a few things mates.

1) the sniping at 200-500m thing works much better with snipers that are original BIS units. Most other snipers are even harder to use. Bloody loons.  

2) use

Code: [Select]

setViewDistance 1000 for the sniper and spotter, which brings us to another point

3)a spotter is amazing help to the sniper, although it may not look like it.

4)NV Goggles are helpful but not needed. I had a russian sniper drill me from 800 in the dark no NVGs.

5)Do not give snipers pistols. They will try to engage you with them if you are under about 100m.

okay i think thats all. i'm starting to lose my train of thought...  

[The-Architect]

I've tried everything except the addon idea. I'm not using any addons for this miision unfortunatly. I have a few ideas which may work but they involve reducing the quality of gameplay so I'm not to sure.

The guy will be spotted at aroung 250-300m so its kind of ok. I have also added a flaretrap which when triggered sends AI to investigate which should cause an exchange and in turn alert the snipers. Only, of course, if there's loud weapons involved.

Cheers for the help. If anyone figures it out in the meantime I'll certainly have my ears open.

[dmakatra]

2) use

Code: [Select]

setViewDistance 1000 for the sniper and spotter, which brings us to another point

Dude, that's just a command that will affect the player. There's no target.

:beat: *Gets Shot* :beat:

[Tyger]

it works for me when i use it on AI. infact, there's a spotter addon that uses the command, makes him see further.
it does work.