Attention Officers,
Thank you for joining us for the 64th edition of our biweekly development briefing, November 17th, 2023!
Today our newly overhauled SWAT AI teammates make their proper debut as an advanced and intuitive critical feature to the game.
With this development on SWAT AI we’ve made a major step towards continuing our vision for what Ready or Not can be— a quintessential tactical shooter with a central focus on PvE that’s worthy of a SWAT experience.
Let us walk you through an overview of the vast new capabilities this SWAT AI system will provide, including huge improvements and additions for formations, stacking, breaching, clearing, callouts, and securing.
Please keep in mind that the development content depicted in this briefing is a work in progress and may be subject to change in the game’s final state.
Vol.64 Development Briefing summary points:
(not a changelog)
- 4 different fall-in formations for SWAT AI, including single file, double file, diamond, and wedge
- SWAT AI can adjust their formation based on the obstacles around them
- Ability to micromanage how your officers stack up, including left, right, split, and swapping positions of specific officers
- SWAT AI can automatically adjust their positioning in a stack according to the room layout or their equipment
- SWAT AI have voice callouts for open doorways, suspect actions, and more
- Vastly improved, realistic clearing tactics for SWAT AI that incorporates many techniques such as dynamic and limited penetration clearing
- Improved SWAT AI usage of less-lethal weapons against suspects
- SWAT AI automatically secures and reports civilians and suspects or DOAs
- SWAT AI automatically secures evidence and has more commands to make evidence collection much more streamlined
- SWAT AI can use the door ram and grenade launchers for breaching
- SWAT AI automatically swaps to their secondary weapon when out of primary weapon ammo, and can fire in semi-auto to conserve ammo when appropriate
- Improved grenade deployment accuracy for SWAT AI
- Teaser conclusion
Falling In
Your SWAT AI teammates can now fall into specific formations, allowing you to fine-tune your officers' movement through a given tactical environment. These 4 fall-in formations are described as single file, double file, diamond, and wedge. When ordering your SWAT members to Hold a position they will properly maintain the formation they were in.
(Image below: The new fall in command menu)
In all of these formations your SWAT AI will strive to maintain their respective angles to create a broad scan of their surroundings with minimal redundant overlap.
Officers in the back of a formation will pull rear security to ensure your flanks are covered.
They will automatically adjust their formation in order to logically accommodate the space they’re in, for example switching from double file to single file or fluidly navigating obstacles.
(GIF below: SWAT AI automatically shifting from double file to single file formation to account for obstacles)
Single file is useful for extremely claustrophobic spaces such as a tunnel. Officers in the middle of the formation will watch left/right. Single file exposes a minimal number of officers to forward facing threats but entails less forward coverage.
(GIF below: SWAT AI in single file cover their angles while moving through a cellar)
In double file, you are positioned at the point of the two columns, with the officers on your right and left watching the front and those in the back watching the rear. Double file is particularly effective for medium width hallways that have high potential for threats in the front and rear.
(GIF below: SWAT AI clearing a hallway while in double file formation)
Diamond formation is beneficial for moving through a space with many openings where potential threats are surrounding you. In open spaces it prioritizes a 360 degrees breadth of coverage over concentrated firepower. In closed spaces it operates similar to double file but with less emphasized rear coverage.
(GIF below: SWAT AI in diamond formation clearing a parking lot)
Last but not least, wedge formation allows you to spread out over an area with a high amount of concentrated focus forward. Officers in this formation will behave similarly to double file except more spread out. Use this formation to overwhelm a specific threat or flank enemies who are using cover.
Stacking Up
You now have the ability to micromanage your stack in careful combinations as you approach your breaches. Choose which side of the threshold (e.g. door or hallway opening) that you want your team to stack on, split the stack, or even order individual officers to swap places with one another.
(GIF below: The new stack up command menu)
Utilize this granularity of stacking styles to prevent officers from being exposed to threats based on the layout of the space and to tailor the approach of your entry into the next space.
Have an officer with a shield? Perhaps put them at the front of the stack, however they can also do this autonomously. Is an officer more injured than another? Consider sending your injured officer towards the rear of a stack.
Are you anticipating long range threats or close-range threats, is less-lethal appropriate, how claustrophobic is the next space, and what’s the risk of bullet over-penetration? No problem. Choose officers with the appropriate weapon systems and loadouts to be near the front of the stack to immediately confront these scenarios.
(GIF below: Ordering specific SWAT AI in a stack to switch places)
However, you don't need to concern yourself too much with these variables, your SWAT AI will strive to intuitively stack up in an appropriate manner for a given room; albeit they do not have nearly as much tactical planning responsibility as you do as their commander.
Breaching
Take advantage of updated breaching styles for SWAT AI, including door rams, 40mm launchers, and leader breaches. The addition of these options for SWAT AI makes them more on par with the versatility of human players.
(Images below: The new breaching command menu, the Battering Ram and Leader breach options are now added)
Among other breaching improvements, they are now capable of busting down a door with a swift swing of a ram or narrowly peaking to pop a 40mm launcher less-lethal munition round into a room. With the tactical intuition prompted by the “leader” breach command, they can comprehend and follow up your own equipment usage (e.g. grenade throw, battering ram, C2) or your movement into the threshold to breach seamlessly with you.
(GIF below: SWAT AI following a "Clear with Leader" command, where the player deploys a flashbang before they enter)
In general, SWAT AI breaching consistency has been improved overall, with more accurate grenade throws being another inclusion.
Callouts and Clearing
Despite such nuanced control you have over almost every tactical facet of your SWAT AI officers, you should also know that they are tactical professionals, effectively fully functional on an autonomous level as well.
They don’t require constant commands or handholding. They will make callouts, move, prioritize contacts in a room in accordance with your orders, lean around corners, stay alert to openings, make arrests, check hiding places, and more based on their own astute tactical awareness.
(GIFs below: SWAT AI smoothly leaning around a wide variety of obstacles to better clear the niches in an area)
(GIF below: SWAT AI performing a special animation to check a potential hiding spot under a table)
Still, they display steadfast obedience to orders and will stop or change what they are doing when requested.
Before and during a clearing SWAT AI will verbally make note of doors/thresholds they see, if they are open, how many, and in what direction. Furthermore, upon spotting an unarmed suspect pull a weapon they will ensure you are aware, with the “Gun!” and “Knife!” voice lines for scenarios teetering on the edge.
Your officers will flow into the room with precision confidence during dynamic entries corresponding to their initial stack setup, alternating entry directions, checking corners, filling the space, calling for compliance, and prioritizing threats.
Officers can also be ordered to use limited penetration (aka ‘slice-based’) CQB clearing techniques such as ‘pieing’ a threshold. When an officer is ordered to ‘pie’ a threshold they will gradually lean and move until they can view a substantial slice of what’s past the threshold. In certain scenarios these techniques can minimize immediate harm to your officers and provide a reactive perception of what’s beyond the threshold.
These two above styles of clearing, dynamic and limited penetration, can easily be combined together when clearing.
(GIF below: SWAT AI 'pieing' a threshold before performing a dynamic entry)
While firefights are ringing out, your officer is not down when they run out ammo on their primary. They will immediately transition to their appropriate secondary weapon and continue engaging any threats as necessary, then switch back to primary when the immediate threat is dealt with. To prevent ammo from running out in the first place your officers can now switch fire modes to semi-automatic on select fire weapons.
(GIF below: SWAT AI automatically swapping between their primary and secondary weapon to engage a threat when out of primary weapon ammo)
Securing the Scene
The increased autonomy of your SWAT AI is perhaps most convenient for how they are able to skillfully secure a scene without needing your direct input. This assistance makes your job a lot less tedious so you can focus on dealing with other tactical situations.
(GIF below: SWAT AI officers automatically securing a weapon and reporting a dead individual)
SWAT AI's enhanced ability to autonomously secure suspects also makes their usage of less lethal equipment more viable than before, wherein now they will promptly pursue securing their target in a safe manner following suspect compliance.
(GIF below: SWAT AI officers automatically securing a civilian)
Conclusion
With our overhauled SWAT AI teammates, playing ‘solo’ has never been a more seamless teamwork-oriented experience. We're thrilled with how the SWAT AI functions right now, and you can expect to see even more improvements such as SWAT AI animation upgrades post 1.0.
Prepare for entry, because we’re currently on track to release 1.0 before the end of the year.
Before we sign off, here’s a bit more intel:
(GIF below: An in-game replay view of our revamped Supporter Edition Exclusive FISA HRT officer outfit and its exclusive tan GPNVGs)
This concludes our 64th development briefing. Be sure to tune in next time for more development news!
Thank you to Ali for his hard work and providing these fantastic GIFs of the SWAT AI system.
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