Suppression and Evasion

Another vid mucking around with the Combine Suppressor and Grunt. For some reason or another the VR was getting laggy, so a shorter vid this time.

[@savageunit4968]

HLA soldiers don't actually have flanking AI. Instead only one AI can use a navigation node at a time, causing multiple AI characters to necessarily take differing paths. It's kind of genius in its simplicity. I believe that Valve didn't want the player to get squeezed by flankers from different directions since it's VR game.

[@leegofilms]

They actually "flank" relative to other squad members. Limiting their node searches to certain "sides" of their squad's center. It's a pretty simple way to keep enemies spread out (and stopping them from running in front of each other), and it has the benefit of creating vague L-shaped crossfires in more open areas (like the Northern Star's Courtyard). From my debugs and tests, it seems these calculations are done cheaply in 2-D, resulting in some strange behavior if you don't set up your squads or spawns correctly. (This is also why larger squads behave more poorly in HLA's environments).

[@amber.mp4]

to be honest, i'd love to see a more advanced ai for half life alyx. i feel like being overwhelmed by combine soldiers would be an incredible vr experience. although i realize it's not for everyone

[@leegofilms]

@@amber.mp4 Well, they make me feel overwhelmed 😂

[@dkskcjfjswwwwwws413]

none of the soldiers in the whole series have flanking ai im pretty sure the only enemy with flanking ai is the hunter

[@PebsBeans]

@@dkskcjfjswwwwwws413 the soldiers in HL2 do

[@razorunit590]

Note: Just like in HL2, your grenades explode faster than the soldiers grenades in HLA HL2: Player's grenade gives off 5 clicks Soldier's grenade gives off 7 clicks HLA: Player's grenade gives off 11 clicks Soldier's grenade gives off 16 clicks

[@RescoeZ]

I did wonder about that. I imagine Valve made enemy grenades take ages to go off so players can escape them.

[@razorunit590]

@@RescoeZ Or more importantly throw them back.

[@swordseven2841]

0:14 Unless you moved in his sight even if you're using teleport locomotion. When the players teleport they leave a breadcrumb trail of invisible proxies, which the AI can see. These proxies pass information to the AI, similar to what it would have gathered from seeing the player perform the movement directly. In this case the AI would know where the teleporting player went, just like a player using continues motion.

[@RescoeZ]

That's right. That's mentioned in the commentary if I recall correctly, Valve wanted to make sure those who use teleport have the same experience.

[@hammertwelve3653]

In combat scenarios, APF is deadly when you stand in his bullet hell. The name Suppressor is direct indicator to his strategy as it revolves around laying down suppressive fire to limit your time to peek or to change cover, and also for the other soldiers to approach you more safely. Whenever you hear Suppressor's minigun spin up, that's a sign to get down or you'll take huge damage.

[@hdanimatesorsomething]

Man kills a heart in like 2 shots, man is that guy good at his job. Plus he takes like 3 or so grenades to kill

[@ceoofsex1908]

Now for the last video will be about mucking around with the Combine Ordinal. The only differences between Grunt and Ordinal in terms of combat abilities are that Ordinal is more accurate than Grunt, and deploys viscerators instead of extractors.

[@centurionzen1005]

You remember in Halo or taking out the elites would reduce the effectiveness of the other enemies? I was hoping that would be the case here.

[@ceoofsex1908]

@@centurionzen1005 How Elites reduce the effectiveness of the other enemies?

[@centurionzen1005]

@@ceoofsex1908 once the elites were killed the grunts would be slow and sluggish. Basically dumbs down their AI level. Disclaimer: I could be wrong.

[@ceoofsex1908]

@@centurionzen1005 Those you're talking about are ordinals not elites, elites are from HL2 improve the squad strength. As for ordinals yeah sometimes the squad panic and become less efficient when they get terminated but it didn't affect the combat encounters in general.

[@lowpolyfruit]

@@ceoofsex1908 They aren't talking about half-life they are talking about Halo.

[@angusmccall3400]

11/15 commenters have a combine pfp. This is an achievement

[@frac4238]

You called?

[@itsmant3]

Glory to the universal union

[@timur5241]

this is a raid xD

[@angusmccall3400]

@Tallyment I spent like 30 minutes photoshopping it out.

[@echo-4656]

Great video as always, thank you for your content!

[@Juulbakker33]

thank you for the request!

[@stabfive4512]

APF is able to suppress non stop but only if the target remains on sightline or when confronting multiple hostiles like Necrotics. Echo and Ordinal units can empty their whole daggers with no cooldown if the target remains on shade (cover) or in proximity status.

[@barrancuda6454]

Awesome video 👍

[@Tommy-sn4qo]

0:49 Suppressive fire not Covering fire. Suppressive fire is when soldiers keep shooting at the enemy's cover in order to pin them down so the others can take advantage over the enemy. Covering fire is when a soldier gets low health or ammo, another soldier pops out to replace him in order to keep constant rate of fire while the previous soldier retreat to safety, And it continues on that.

[@RescoeZ]

Oops.

[@leegofilms]

When attacking the AI will behave slightly different if they have valid "strong cover" positions or "Sentry Positions". I don't know the commands to reveal "Sentry positions", but if you use "ai_debug_los 3" I believe it reveals where all nearby "strong cover" positions (they're green boxes), if you're curious. Grunts and Officers will "commit" to attacks and move around more when these positions are available to use. This also influences how their flank behavior works. However, when they commit to these flanking actions they can't always move and shoot, resulting in the AI being quite "dumb" on custom levels that don't set these encounters up properly.

[@frac4238]

Requesting Backup

[@itsmant3]

*combine elite aserting dominance*

[@razoreight9571]

Just curious if you were to become combine soldier in HLA, which unit you wish to become and why: A) Echo unit B) Ordinal unit C) Wallhammer unit D) APF unit

[@echo-4656]

I would become suppressor soldier (?echo unit?), cuz his job is more save: you have great armor (most powerful helmet), machine gun, that can eliminate most of your enemies and always you stand behind of your combine comrads and cover them. But one drawback: the machine gun takes time to cool down and you cannot shoot without a break.

[@alphenex8974]

B, They look cool and they got some good armor, they got a special weapon too.

[@kentaro2812]

B because they stay at range with their rifle while the ECHOs flank. Also I like their radio and character, and they get to lead as the stabilization team delegate.

[@itsmant3]

I mean with these ranks you can just give orders to other soldiers not a citizen,or maybe sometimes I always prefer civil protection but a grunt is fine I can still have some of my humanity

[@MbakItsumi]

B ofc they cool and also good aim than grunt. And can deploy i forget the name. But yeah i choose B.

[@overwatchelite7575]

Type: Don't rush soldiers while having low daggers. They won't hesitate to spray the whole magazine if you're at proximity level.

[@DrawinskyMoon]

Imagine playing through the game and not killing a soul. That would be an insane achievement

[@EnclaveSOC-102]

We need an ordinal video that shows their overview and how they fair with directing other combine units.

[@mothramaster1837]

1 year later and the raid is still strong.

[@HelmetTW]

Why tf is there so many combines posing in the PFP

[@uglies7056]

I think, it's Apprehension and Evasion

[@trackertwo1116]

Valve, 2004: "Combine soldiers don't have shoulder pads, they're unnecessary baggage, our design makes sense and is plausible years down the road." Valve, 2020: "So here are Combine soldiers with shoulder pads."

[@RexOrbis]

Not just shoulder pads, shoulder pads bigger than a ribcage

[@RescoeZ]

Yeah the Charger is the most guilty of this, followed by the Ordinal. I do like that HLA's Combine soldiers have more than one ammo pack on them though

[@snakebae6259]

I really don't like HLA combines really. They feel soooo sluggish. Its not even only the fact that they don't run away from grenades at all, are slow and don't move much; they just *feel* sluggish with their visuals, while HL2 combines looked so much more compact and complete. You could shrug it off by saying its just technology difference between the times but still.

[@i-dislike-handles]

It makes sense to me, if your soldier is slowed by the weight of their equipment why not just give them more protection?

[@i-dislike-handles]

@@snakebae6259 Them being sluggish is a design choice since it's a VR game and dodging incoming fire can be pretty difficult sometimes. I do agree about them not running from grenades though.

[@w1ck862]

Combine.

[@spearsix5441]

It's worth noting that in rare cases APF may abandon their sentry position and advance on target's position. That happened once in the final encounters of chapter 10 based on how my data can recall last node.

[@timur5241]

this comment section is raided by combine soldiers xD

[@kentaro2812]

what vr do you use

[@itsmant3]

He uses the steam one

[@RescoeZ]

Valve Index.

[@leonader9465]

Fun drinking game: Take a shot every time you see someone with a combine soldier in their profile picture.

[@zhankazest]

*half life 2 death beep sound effect*

[@alphenex8974]

why the fuck do most of the people that commented on this video have Combine Soldier codenames names??

[@theobserver200]

Player closes the door.. : Nothing here

[@spearfive6114]

The content is going well so far but I kinda wanna see some of your amazing HL2. I am not saying that HLA is boring but it starts to get a bit of uninterested when you keep uploading videos about it for a long time just like with any other game (I missed HL2 combine soldiers though).

[@RescoeZ]

That's fair enough, if you have anything in mind do let me know.

[@spearfive6114]

@@RescoeZ One of our comrades has been making dynamic advancements in Half-Life 2's AI and some of it's systems. He succeeded in enhancing the combat difficulty. It's worth checking out the enhanced AI videos: kzbin.info/door/sa7abkH-k9aJ6sL8beJ0BA

[@spearfive6114]

@@RescoeZ We noticed that most of the feedback we've been receiving about vanilla HL2 combat encounters are negative which is true since the enemies didn't seem to live long enough for the players to experience their AI. So we have decided that we improve the combat encounters by adding enhancements to the enemies that can make them able to stand their ground against any threat which forces the player to play smart in order to defeat them.

[@DOOM202-4]

👍 sos un CRAK Saludame

[@tomithino456]

I like how there's actually subtitles for combine soldiers unlike half life 2

[@MoonLightFML]

The sound design of the grunt weapon is great

[@splashmob]

never noticed this before, but near the end of the video, was that Grunt limping slightly when walking after having taken damage? if so that's a really great bit of detail

[@EnclaveSergeantArchDornan]

yeah

[@ze_glitchy_gamer7629]

This'll be useful for when I ever get a chance to play.

[@lucasss1543]

why is everyone with combine soldier pic

[@TacticalDumbass]

Question, do you focus more on the lore and ingame history of the Combine, or rather the AI and their mechanics?