Spotter does not provide targets for artillery gunner

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The spotter class does not use the default mode of the binoculars to provide 
artillery targets. 

Original issue reported on code.google.com by ea...@djbarney.org on 19 Feb 2012 at 9:21

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Original comment by djbar...@djbarney.org on 26 Feb 2012 at 7:36

• Changed state: Unconfirmed

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Related to issue 69: 
http://code.google.com/p/forgotten-hope-singleplayer/issues/detail?id=69

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"Indirect-fired artillery in BF2?
The artillery in BF1 is allowed to attack anything that its team mates had 
spotted. It's part of the ai artillery vehicle type. You don't need an actual 
spotter using the binoculars, any friendly ai character will do. If the ai 
artillery vehicle type code in BF1 was left in BF2, then it should work the 
same.
attrib:Outsider

http://www.battlefieldsingleplayer.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=14678&hl=optima
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Original comment by djbar...@djbarney.org on 7 Mar 2012 at 12:04

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I tried comment 2 along time ago.
There is some literature (a PDF file, actually) from DICE that explains a good 
deal of code and how they relate to bots. It was info used to explain BF1942.
One of things was this indirect-fire.
It was code that was used in the aibehaviours.ai file.

Long story short, I tried it to no avail. The game CTD when added.
I gave it a good go, but it was code that didn't work anymore, obviously.

With that said, all bots have the ability to 'spot'.
They don't need to be the 'spotter class'.

By chance, I saw this in action in regards to arty.
I edited Fall of Tobruk so the Brits had a Lewis Bipod on a second floor 
building.
He would gun down the Germans as they attempted top approach the city.

Tired of getting killed numerous bots kept 'spotting' him to let others know he 
was there.

As I watched the carnage, suddenly, out of the blue came a large cloud of 
debris centered on where the bipod was.

It surprised me as the Germans had no vehicles in the area.
A second explosion hit the same area, this time killing the bot manning the 
bipod.

Confused I took a look at the info on what killed the bot and it was a PAK40.
The only PAK40 that the Germans had was one I placed way back on the edge of 
the map to prevent the Brits from overrunning the Germans.
Sure enough a bot was manning the PAK40.

After the match I loaded up FoT in the Editor to calculate the distance between 
the bipod and PAK40. It was some 300 meters.

Not amazing in itself, but was amazing in that the 
GameLogic.MaximumLevelViewDistance was 125 meters.
This means that no human or bot can see anything beyond that while ingame on 
FoT.

So, German bots spotted the bipod and the PAK40 used the info to calculate and 
fire even though he couldn't see the bipod himself.
Was pretty cool.

Wasn't a one time thing either, it didn't happen all the time, but enough to 
know that it's possible.

Original comment by evanthom...@gmail.com on 24 Mar 2012 at 9:01

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I've read somewhere that AI ignores GameLogic.MaximumLevelViewDistance, 
weaponTemplate.maxRange has far more influence on bots.

Original comment by gavrant on 24 Mar 2012 at 1:23

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About view distance and AI:
http://www.battlefieldsingleplayer.com/forum/lofiversion/index.php?t13934.html

Quote:
ballard44 Jun 10 2009, 10:20 AM

"and the max view distance is whatever the "GameLogic.MaximumLevelViewDistance 
#" is set too"

Yeah, this does not effect bots in any way...Same tests with this variable set 
to 25 meters and they were still shooting at each other from 600+ meters.
This setting has much more to do with helping our computers cope with the 
graphic side of BF2.
To 'hid' this feature from just cutting off the map, they included 'fog'.

Original comment by gavrant on 24 Mar 2012 at 2:05

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You know what's awesome about that thread link, gavrant?
I am ballard44! lol

I know since then that you can get anything to fire quite a long distance now.

About the GameLogic.MaximumLevelViewDistance in that thread, the bots must have 
picked up on me firing at them from a huge distance even with a low 
'ViewDistance'.

I do recall initiating the action.
I imagine the bots would have waited until they ran into each other at 25 
meters to start fighting if I hadn't done that.

More importantly, if a bot 'spot's something', it is possible that bot arty can 
place indirect fire.

Original comment by evanthom...@gmail.com on 24 Mar 2012 at 5:57

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LOL, I thought that you are Void.

Anyway, my 2 previous comments are not about spotting, but about direct fire 
PaK from your comment #4:
"After the match I loaded up FoT in the Editor to calculate the distance 
between the bipod and PAK40. It was some 300 meters.

Not amazing in itself, but was amazing in that the 
GameLogic.MaximumLevelViewDistance was 125 meters.
This means that no human or bot can see anything beyond that while ingame on 
FoT."

Original comment by gavrant on 24 Mar 2012 at 9:18

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Has anyone looked at "mods\fh2\python\game\plugins\artillery.py" ? This is the 
Forgotten Hope Python code for artillery spotting. It could be enhanced for AI.

Original comment by djbar...@djbarney.org on 26 May 2012 at 6:43

• Changed state: Accepted