With the coming of Arma 2 I'm picking up mission making again, checking out all the cool new features BIS presented us. But with more intelligent AI (especially with enhancements like Zeus AI combat skills) and more challenging terrains (altough we might decide to lower terrain detail to increase visibility) I'm searching for the optimal human vs AI ratio, as the often 1:10 ratios of OFP might not do anymore and render the mission impossible. I checked out some of the missions we played last week and they seem to have considerably lower numbers of AI enemies.
Anyone has any experience in this? What are your thoughts?
If its fore a mission as a hole i think you could keep it some were around there(i guess that not all 10 is supposed to be standing in the same place?)
Exp. 10players v 100 AI is a god ration if the AIs is spread ut and doing natural things. 3-4man patrols moving around the country side or standing around a campfire doing what ever they do when they arent killing us, is god. 12-40 man going back and forth in a small forest just makes you frustrated(and a bird in this game).
My call is that most players could survive a contact wite 2-3 enemy etch. Above that its usully god night.
Im not certain if this is true when using Zeus. As i havent played it enough. Only ACE and vanilla
There is in my opinion not a general rule to be given for human vs AI ratio, as it is dependent on various conditions. Having the playable units vastly outnumbered is not a problem if the setting of the mission allows the players to defeat the AI in detail, for example with various units tied to a certain location or being activated only when certain conditions are met. With the vast space of Chernarus it is sometimes necessary to deploy quite a few enemy AI in area to be traversed by the playable units or else one might never meet an opponent in game. Having large numbers of enemies divided over multiple units is generally better than putting a lot of them in one group.
Regards,
Sander