Better Battle Buddies

0.1.8

0.1.8

Squads that keep attacking, AT gunners who use their rockets, and vehicles that behave. Ready for Arma Reforger 1.9.

REFORGER 1.9

- AI vehicles move again. 1.9's automatic gearbox cancelled the driving BBB does for AI drivers (backing away from a rocket or an armed vehicle, backing out when stuck), so trucks sat still or crept forward.
- Handbrake when the driver leaves (on by default): in 1.9 an empty vehicle drops into neutral, so one left on a slope rolled away on its own.
- Loads with long mod lists. With ACE, AC: Actual, AiO and more loaded, the game could refuse to load its scripts.

NEW

- AT gunners use their launchers on infantry: HE and dual-purpose rockets at groups and men behind cover, any rocket at men in buildings or dug in, unless enemy armour is about. They load the right warhead for the target when they carry one, and wait for contact before loading.
- Machine gunners and AT gunners work with their ammo bearer: he stays close, hands over ammo before they run dry and picks up the launcher if his gunner falls.
- Soldiers caught on a road in a firefight get off it into cover instead of lying on the tarmac.
- Cover only counts when it is between a soldier and the enemy: no more men sheltering on the wrong side of the sandbags.
- A gunner on an empty static gun gets off and fights with his rifle; he mans it again once it has ammo.
- Covered fall-back for missions that use it: a squad its mission orders back under fire bounds back in two halves, one covering the other, instead of going prone where it stands. AC: Actual's Experimental tab switches it on; on its own it changes nothing.
- Off by default, in the Battle Buddies settings tab: Hot AI (faster spotting and firing; sharper vehicle gunners), return fire at shooters you can't see, vehicles that give way to each other, and unarmed vehicles that get away from armour.

BETTER

- Attacking squads keep moving while they trade fire. They hold only when outnumbered or flanked.
- Morale works: losses now count, and every squad gets a morale check on big missions, not just the first 64.
- Squads hit by a vehicle or a static gun know where the fire comes from: they take cover, smoke and fall back.
- Riflemen shoot at armoured vehicle crews standing in the hatches.
- A gunner stays on his gun when the vehicle has no driver.
- Lighter on the server.

FIXED

- AI throws grenades and fires launchers at enemy players again.
- No frags under hold fire, and a frag waiting to be thrown is called off if a friendly walks into its path.
- Player and Game Master orders are respected in more places, and a player's heal order to an AI medic is carried out.
- With ACE Carrying, the host can walk normally while an AI soldier drags a casualty.
- Every mission starts fresh after a server restart or scenario rotation.
- Smoke counts as cover only once a grenade has actually been thrown.
- A soldier stuck by a door is no longer stuck there for good.
- Settings: smoke cooldowns take effect, launch parameters are read like the Settings tab, and the Gates and Unstick switches turn off everything they describe.
- Several rare script errors.

0.1.7

0.1.7

- A **Battle Buddies** tab in the game's Settings menu, so you can set up how BBB's AI fights without touching launch parameters. Every option has a switch or slider with a short description, grouped by feature. Save setups as presets, then duplicate, rename, delete and share them: Export copies a preset to the clipboard and tells you where its file is. Two built-in presets to start from: BBB default (what the mod ships) and Vanilla (every BBB feature off). A preset applies when a mission starts, in singleplayer and in games you host; on someone else's server, that server's settings apply. Server hosts drop the file into the server's profile folder under BBB/Presets and start the server with -bbbPreset <name>. Launch parameters still win over a preset, so existing server setups keep working unchanged.
- New options for values that used to be fixed: how long squads assault, hold and reorganise; how far a squad without a radio can call out a contact, and how fresh a sighting must be to pass on; the grenade throwing lane; smoke and illumination cooldowns; the morale breaking point and how far a broken squad falls back. Also two of the game's own AI values, skill and spotting speed, set when a soldier spawns; anything a host mod, Game Master or mission sets later still wins. Every new option defaults to today's behaviour.
- Soldiers fighting from a building stay in it. Before, the game's combat movement sent a soldier who'd stood still for a few seconds to cover 10-30 m towards the enemy, and its reaction to being shot at sent him sprinting in a random direction: both meant out of the door into the open, so garrisons emptied within seconds of the first shot. Now a soldier inside keeps his window while he can see the enemy, moves to another window in the same building when he can't, ducks behind the walls when shot at instead of running out, and stands back up to see over the sill instead of lying blind on the floor. Defenders hold even when they lose sight of the enemy; others go after him as before if the building gives them no view. An enemy inside the same building is still fought room to room (-bbbIndoorHold 0).
- Soldiers no longer throw frag grenades from inside buildings or into a wall or overhang just in front of them. The old check only looked 3 m straight ahead, but a grenade is lobbed, so it could hit the ceiling or the wall above a window and land at the thrower's feet.
- Squads routed on foot round a bay or lake keep a little inland instead of hugging the waterline, and no leg of the route ends on a beach. Before, a leg could end right at the water's edge, where the game's pathfinding sometimes fails every move and the squad stood there for good (-bbbShoreRoutes 0).
- Armour learning judges each round fired, not each hit. Before, it could decide in seconds that a 25 mm cannon or an M72 couldn't hurt a BTR-70 they were wrecking, and gunners stopped firing at it: it judged every spall fragment as a hit of its own and only counted damage to the exact part struck, so wheels, engines and gearboxes destroyed behind the hull counted for nothing, and the 25 mm's spall was credited to other rounds. Now a round's spall, fragments and blast all count as that round, and it got through if the vehicle lost health anywhere or someone inside was hurt. Rifle rounds that do nothing to armour are still learned as useless (-bbbArmour 0).
- For mod makers: a host mod can give a squad its own leash, a circle it may manoeuvre in (an objective, a post). While it is set it replaces the order leash for every Better Battle Buddies behaviour, and fire and manoeuvre may then run under a Defend waypoint, inside that circle only. Nothing changes for squads without one, so Conflict and Game Master play as before.
- A vehicle crewman that Better Battle Buddies turned out of his hatch goes back in when a player or Game Master order arrives, before the order takes over. Before, BBB let go of the hatch with him still out and never took it back, so he rode out the fight exposed, and stayed out after the order ended. He turns out again only after the usual 30 quiet seconds once the order is over (-bbbCrewTurnout 0).
- For mod makers: a host mod can tell BBB that a group's player-level order is its own, not a player's (new hook `HostOrder`). Some hosts run their AI commander's urgent moves at the player's level so they outrank combat. Under such an order, the crew of an armed vehicle now stay in their seats at gates and when a crewmate needs healing, as they do under an ordinary order. Real player and Game Master orders are still left alone.
- Base-game AI fix: no more script error when a squad spots an enemy that has no faction (a NULL pointer to `targetFaction` while marking it on the map). That enemy just isn't marked on the map.

0.1.6

0.1.6

Squads that fight as a team: they share what they see over the radio, commit to a plan, flank and search, and pull back properly when they break. Player and Game Master orders still come first.

- Gunners stay on held guns. A host mod can now tell BBB which static guns a squad holds where it stands, such as a checkpoint MG or a dug-in position (new hook `GetHeldGuns`; plain vanilla and Game Master groups hold none). On those guns the gunner no longer climbs out because an enemy he heard about or saw a while ago is outside the gun's arc: he only gets out for an enemy he saw within 60 m in the last 10 seconds. If a held gun stands empty for 8 seconds, the squad's nearest soldier on foot within 40 m mans it again. BBB's own static crewing keeps a held gun manned when its sector goes quiet. Vehicles are unchanged (-bbbHoldGuns 0).
- Base-game AI fixes: no more script errors when a group's orders are replaced while it is defending ("Wrong class of provided Waypoint!", "Defend Waypoint not provided to the node!"), or when a group without a leader just then fails a move (a NULL pointer in `SCR_AIProcessFailedMovementResult`). These hit any host or Game Master who changes a defending group's orders. The nodes now fail quietly, which is what the errors ended in anyway, so the AI behaves the same.
- Squads warn each other by radio. When a squad spots enemies, friendly squads within its radio range (about 1.3 km with personal radios, 2 km with a manpack) hear about it a few seconds later and react as if they'd heard the shooting: they turn to it, take cover or send a fireteam to look. A report is only where the enemy was last seen, never a target to shoot at, and it isn't passed on again. Squads without a radio only hear each other within shouting distance. Player-led squads and squads under a player's or Game Master's order are left alone (-bbbContactRelay 0).
- Squads can make bounded reactions to nearby contacts during ordinary AI movement orders, then continue their route. Explicit player/GM orders and transport remain in charge. Use -bbbOrderLeash 0 to retain the previous waypoint restrictions.
- Soldiers out of magazines go and get more, even mid-fight. A rifleman with no spare magazine heads for the nearest friendly body with matching ammo instead of carrying on the firefight or being sent forward in a bound, then rejoins his team. Switching to his pistol no longer makes him forget he needs ammo (-bbbRearm 0).
- Squads go round a dug-in enemy. Facing an enemy who stays put 120 to 250 m away, a squad first holds and fires to fix him, then flanks: one half runs to covered ground well off his line while the other half covers it, swapping as they go, and they attack from the new angle. When contact is lost, a squad searches: half of it checks where the enemy was last seen and the cover around it, one spot at a time, while the other half watches, then calls clear. Covering fire is now aimed at the tree, rock or wall nearest where the enemy was seen, and never near friendly soldiers (-bbbTacticFlank 0, -bbbTacticSearch 0, -bbbCoverFire 0).
- Squads commit to a plan. On first contact a squad pauses to take in the enemy, then its leader picks a plan and sticks with it: assault (fire and manoeuvre toward the enemy, about 1.5 minutes) when the odds are fair, or hold and fight from cover (about 45 seconds) when it is outnumbered, flanked, pinned down or the enemy is far off. A squad that finds more enemies than it thought switches from assault to holding. When the leader falls, the squad holds for 20 seconds while someone takes over. The leader calls the plan out loud: move, defend this position, fall back. Squads under a player's or Game Master's order are left alone (-bbbTactic 0).
- Squads read a fight from two sides correctly. A squad facing enemies in more than one direction now aims its smoke, its static gun and its fire-and-manoeuvre at the group that matters most (the nearest, freshest and biggest it has seen) instead of at an empty spot between them, and a squad that breaks retreats through the open side instead of backing away from one group straight into the other (-bbbSquadPicture 0).
- Squads that break really pull back. A squad whose morale breaks now falls back in two halves: one half runs while the other holds its ground and keeps firing, then they swap, even under fire. Before, the runners often never moved and the covering half advanced on the enemy. A lone survivor runs instead of standing still. Losing the squad leader now counts toward a break for a while after someone else takes over (-bbbMorale 0).
- One job at a time. A soldier dragging or treating a wounded buddy, walking to a static gun, or fetching ammo is no longer counted into a fire-and-manoeuvre bound, sent indoors, or picked to throw a grenade or smoke at the same moment. A rescue still takes him from anything else (-bbbClaims 0).
- Vehicle crews stay in their seats. Drivers no longer climb out under fire to open a gate (BBB opens it for them), and the driver, gunner or commander of an armed or armoured vehicle no longer bails out to treat a wounded buddy: someone on foot goes instead. Double gates now open for AI vehicles too, and armour that is under fire or near enemies opens gates well ahead so it doesn't slow down (-bbbCrewStays 0).

0.1.5

0.1.5

More initiative under fire, with your orders still in charge. This update enables BBB's combat, medical and vehicle features by default; each retains its own server off switch. The optional Think panel remains off.

### Fire and movement

- Fireteams alternate covering fire and movement. Covering soldiers can suppress a recently reported enemy position after the enemy ducks, movers tolerate brief pauses in cover fire, and a casualty no longer ends the whole manoeuvre. Use -bbbFireManeuver 0 to disable it, or -bbbFireCoverOrders 0 to disable only the ordered covering fire.
- Squads seek indoor cover near detected enemies and investigate further reachable positions when contacts are inside. Blocked routes are abandoned and player orders take priority. This is contact-driven movement, not a guarantee of clearing every room (-bbbBuildings 0 disables).
- Soldiers use carried grenades against nearby enemies in cover, checking friendly clearance and the throwing route before committing. Squad cooldowns limit repeated throws (-bbbGrenades 0).
- Idle or defending soldiers can walk to a nearby loaded friendly static weapon and crew it during contact. They give it up for orders, exhausted ammunition or a lost target (-bbbStaticWeapons 0).
- Badly battered autonomous squads can withdraw in covered bounds; isolated, out-of-ammo survivors cornered by an enemy can surrender. Withdrawals stop if the squad cannot make real progress (-bbbMorale 0).

### Keep each other alive

- Tactical smoke screens casualty drags, advances and withdrawals toward known threat sectors (-bbbSmoke 0). Fixed medic smoke being skipped before the throw could happen.
- Safer healing is now enabled by default (-bbbMedic 0 disables). Medics fight a nearby visible enemy before approaching a casualty, and casualty draggers let go to return fire against an immediate threat.
- Medics no longer backtrack more than 75 m to a casualty during a fight. They can still go when the squad closes up or the fighting quiets down.
- Suppressed soldiers caught without cover keep spotting and fighting back; soldiers in cover still keep their heads down (-bbbExposedFire 0).
- Riflemen no longer permanently give up on jeeps and Humvees after their shots strike the hull. Only real armour triggers rifle-immunity handling. The get-low reaction now requires recently seen armour, while AT specialists retain their firing stance (-bbbArmourScatter 0).
- Night illumination uses carried flare ammunition to light recently sighted enemy sectors, with squad and area cooldowns to limit repeated launches (-bbbFlares 0).

### Crews, doors and squad cohesion

- Supported armoured crew positions turn out after a quiet period and button up when danger returns (-bbbCrewTurnout 0).
- Idle wheeled-vehicle drivers can make a small, guarded adjustment to bring a gunner's visible target inside a limited turret arc. Player driving, movement orders and unsafe ground take priority (-bbbDriverAlign 0).
- Against launcher fire, supported vehicles use fitted smoke weapons; slow wheeled vehicles can also make a short guarded reverse (-bbbArmorReaction 0).
- Turret-linked commander seats count as crew, keeping their occupants aboard when passengers dismount under fire (-bbbCommanderCrew 0).
- Soldiers stuck at a house door while trying to move can swing it fully open or flip it to the other side. Doors are never closed on anyone (-bbbDoorUnstick 0).
- Squads use an awake member as their reference when their leader is knocked out. Soldiers bounding or withdrawing are no longer diverted to scavenge or crew static weapons.
- Fixed a weapon-mode issue that let AI aim a very fast-firing weapon without ever firing.

### See the decision, share the feedback

- Hosts and mission makers can enable -bbbThink 1 and look at an AI soldier to see BBB's decisions and reasons for holding back. Use -bbbThink 2 to include the notes in the server log; the panel is off by default.
- Bugs and ideas are welcome on Discord: https://discord.gg/WK8xGSztB. Use #issues for BBB bugs and #suggestions for ideas. GitHub Issues remain available.

0.1.4

- Expanded the Workshop overview with standalone scenario use, squad-command compatibility, server options and public GitHub source/issue links.
- Prevent repeated AI fire-selector requests when the weapon already uses the best available fallback mode.
- Added tactical suppression geometry and recovery tuning (`BBB_Threat`, `-bbbThreatGeometry 0`, `-bbbThreatDecay 0`): incoming fire from elevated high ground or exposed flanks/rear pins AI faster, ambushes against calm or marching squads deal initial suppression shock, nearby explosions carry heavier suppression weight, and suppression decays more gradually so base-of-fire tactics keep heads down longer.
- Added 343 m/s acoustic speed-of-sound explosion reflex (`BBB_Threat`, `-bbbThreatExplosion 0`): foot soldiers near a detonation hit the dirt (prone within 45 m, crouch out to 75 m) as the blast wave physically reaches them rather than reacting on the same frame or remaining standing.
- Added tactical turret gunner seat replacement (`BBB_VehicleHelpers`, `-bbbGunnerReplace 0`): when an armed vehicle's turret gunner is killed, knocked unconscious, or empty with available ammo, AI crew members autonomously replace them. Conscious cargo passengers aboard (preferring non-leaders) are promoted first; if empty and stationary, nearby dismounted squadmates on foot within 8 m mount the turret. Dead or incapacitated gunners are cleanly evicted before boarding.
- Turret logs now describe accepted boarding requests accurately, and development diagnostics track actual occupancy and later dismounts.
- Added anti-armor low-profile posture reaction and AT isolation (`BBB_Armour`, `-bbbArmourScatter 0` / `-bbbAntiArmor 0`): non-AT infantry get low (crouch out to 450 m, prone within 120 m) to minimize profile when confronted by hostile armored vehicles, while dedicated AT specialists hold stance without posture penalties to line up shots.
- Added opportunistic combat rearming and corpse scavenging (`BBB_Rearm`, `-bbbRearm 0`, `-bbbRearmRadius <m>`): soldiers running critically low on ammunition (< 2 magazines) or facing armored threats without AT scavenge nearby friendly/enemy casualties (default 25 m radius) for compatible magazines, launchers, and rockets, checking reach, floor height and obstructions before transfers. Scavenging yields to player/GM orders and control changes, limits failed trips with temporary backoff, restores items after failed inventory insertion, and matches live rocket ammunition to the selected launcher instead of equipment names.

0.1.2

0.1.2

- Medics and teammates now deploy smoke cover toward enemy threats by default before advancing to treat an exposed casualty, waiting briefly for the smoke cloud to bloom.
- Added standalone tactical cargo dismount under fire: AI passengers in ground vehicles that slow down or lose their driver under fire automatically dismount to fight on foot while turret crews remain aboard.
- Added standalone speed-aware stalled vehicle unsticking: AI drivers stuck against obstacles reverse and steer clear automatically in Conflict, Game Master, and custom scenarios without requiring Arma Commander: Actual.

0.1.1

- Added correct thumbnail

0.1.0