Realistic Combat Overhaul (Preset for SAIN) 3.1.1 (v1.2)

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A balanced SAIN preset option for those looking to achieve a more realistic shooter experience in SPT.

Realistic Combat Overhaul

A preset for SAIN, balanced for an immersive combat experience.

Don’t forget to press F6 and select the preset to get it working in SAIN.


This preset will (obviously) require SAIN, as well as THAT'S LIT.


Though not a hard requirement, I'd strongly recommend Realism, because of how well it adds immersion and balance to this preset.


Your typical SAIN AI can be expected, though the ranges at which they conduct actions have been tweaked. In general, you can expect a much more tactical experience during raids

  • Enemies behave less like typical Tarkov AI, instead engaging from realistic effective ranges. Only the more aggressive personality types of enemies will prioritize assaulting closer when you’re within their weapons effective range. This varies heavily based on the type of weapon (rifles of intermediate or full power calibers can be effective at 200-300 meters for example).
  • No longer will AI attempt to spray you with automatic fire from absurd ranges, instead relying on accurate, controlled strings of fire. You’ll find that enemies will spray full auto from only point-blank ranges. Submachine guns, and belt-fed emplacements have a longer range that this effect will occur, to accentuate more realistic uses for specific weapons.
  • Hearing ranges for AI have been increased for gunfire but decreased for player movement. The hearing ranges is about half for nearly all player movement. I attempted to get this as close to the same ranges that the player hears the enemy. For gunfire, I balanced the hearing range for rounds around the distance that a combatant could reasonably assess to being near effective ranges for most weapons. For rifle calibers, this is anywhere from 300-400 meters.
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  • Version 3.1.1 (v1.2)

    • Increased reaction times for AI (if they're still too difficult or easy, adjust the modifiers in the "difficulty," and "look" tabs of SAIN.
    • Performance mode should be on by default now.

    If there's still issues please let me know. I'll create a package of presets before the week is over that will address different preferred levels of difficulty.

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  • Version 3.1.1 (v1.1)

    • Found an issue where bot reaction time was double dipping That's Lit (I forgot to revert some changes from the last release).
    • Widened peripheral FOV of AI, but decreased the speed that they can spot you at the edge of those peripherals (you should stop seeing bots walk right past you as often).
    • Poses matter less as long as your actual body is concealed better. Before, if you were standing (even behind cover or in shadow) the AI's logic prioritized your pose over what was actually concealing you.
    • Lighting matters more, so you should stick to shadows more often.
    • AI should stop 360 no-scoping, but if you guys feel like they're still too reactive I can tweak it further.
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  • Version 3.1.0 (v1.0)

    Apologies for the strange format for downloading, I'm fairly new to github. Easier to install now. Version number will now match SAIN's current release.

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  • Is it normal for AI to head eyes you even with "always aim center mass" on? cause ive been getting head eyes way too often with that setting on (with lowered accuracy too)

  • Loving this so far. Though PMC's still react super fast as soon as they are engaged. I use That's Lit. Did you get around to doing a config that works a bit smoother with this?

  • I FUCKING love it bro <3, cant wait to see where else this goes

  • This preset is exceptional, hope development is not finished with it but it already works great. Will use it all the way my current perma-playthrough.

  • What should I set Donuts bot difficulty to? As Online? Or does it not matter? Thanks for the mod!

  • feels a bit too easy in newest version.The AI cant hit u if u keep running.Also sometimes the AI wont quickly see u even u are pretty near at them

    • did you increase the DifficultyScaling?

      i also increased hearing which increases bot awareness ig

  • So far I'm suprised how good this is. There are some minor things such as scavs getting stuck in one place and looking slightly above and they too do tend to lean like PMCs(do keep that) but so far I like it very much. The maps feel alive as well because the bots themselves don't die instantly. I'm glad this exists.

  • Does this affect all AI, such as scavs and bosses? I would like for it to be only applied for PMCs, and set all other AI to default.

    • I believe it's only for PMC's

    • It effects certain AI depending on their aggression level if I'm not mistaken. Some bosses will still shoot full auto at various distances.

    • How might I go about disabling all changes except for PMCs? Resetting values inside SAIN reverts to preset default it seems.

    • That would be hard. You'd have to go in and manually increase the sliders for a ton of the non-PMC json configs. The general settings work as a multiplier in a lot of instances for behavior, with non-pmc's having base values for behavior that allow changes. Bosses really aren't that much different (still noticeable).

  • What would be setting to adjust how fast and accurate they are when engaged at distance? Lets say that if i shoot at PMC's from 100meters, they wouldnt spot me instant and one tap me with that accuracy? maybe if its not possible to reduce how fast they react to me, maybe distance accuracy? lets say that it takes longer for them to aim

    • I’m adjusting it, should be available tomorrow

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    • You really dont want to tell us what parameters are responsible for it :D

    • curious too

  • Bots retaliate way too fast and accurately when engaged from a distance. Otherwise, detection time, distance and scatter are good.

    • That’s largely due to SAIN AI and That’s Lit interacting with each other. If you're not in a dark, shaded area or heavily concealed by foliage they will automatically start suppressing. Being indoors can help a bit as well. The number one place my own testing has shown where they’ll return fire quickly is when engaging PMC’s in the daylight.


      You can increase the parameters of That’s Lit to make you more concealed, I’m probably going to bundle a preset for that as well with the next update

    • Also if you’re using a suppressed weapon and wondering why they can still engage you at moderate distances, it’s because they have more realistic detection ranges for supersonic rounds

  • Code
    can i add a ghot mask to the stealth item somehow?? and what does stealthvalue mean?

    • I’m not sure if the stealth value still works with the changes of the preset tbh

    • Code
      Thanks, and can I find out?

  • Good afternoon! Could you please clarify which setting is responsible for a bot's quick detection of a player from a distance? I keep encountering situations where a bot immediately detects me from over 50 meters away as soon as I start shooting. Ambushing bots is impossible since they instantly spot the player. It would be understandable if they took some time to figure out where the shots are coming from, but there is absolutely no delay. And often, the bots don't even have optical sights, just iron sights. This applies to both PMC and Scav bots.

    • I’m pretty sure that’s a combination of the effects from both SAIN and That’s Lit. SAIN AI will immediately return fire (it seems unfair in practice, but it should be super inaccurate since they’re being suppressed). What could contribute to them seeing you so quick is the brightness of the environment from That’s Lit. I would tweak reaction times in SAIN and maybe look into the weight of brightness settings in That’s Lit.


      I personally notice that with this preset they are quicker to return fire, but it’s mega inaccurate at most ranges. I’ll probably tweak the preset a bit to tone it down.

    • Sorry, could you please tell me which settings in SAIN are responsible for this? In That’s Lit, I believe it's the brightness impact offset.

    • No need, I found an issue that can cause double-dipped ai behavior. Fixing and updating the preset now. It fixes this issue (hopefully fr this time)

    • Could you please let me know which specific settings you changed in SAIN and The Lit? I'm just curious.

    • A ton of settings were changed. Mostly vision settings, and with the most recent update to the preset I toned down reaction times. It disables some SAIN functions to rely on That's Lit as well. Engagement ranges were increased, and automatic fire ranges were decreased. Aggression trumps my preset though, if an aggressive AI is spawned, it will still regard my changes (though not nearly as much as more passive AI).

  • I use that's lit with brightness settings disabled for FPS concerns, would this be an issue with this preset?

    • It should work decently, if you feel like ai spot you at absurd distances adjust the SAIN presets look parameters

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  • Hi. In the That's Lit mod page, the author recommends "some tweaks" in the SAIN configuration.

    Do I need to make those tweaks or in your Mod/Preset for SAIN those tweaks are included?

    Thank you.

    • They are included, it's a plug and play preset that removes any guesswork for you

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  • how big of a requirement thats lit is? i would love to run it but my pc is just not strong enough to handle it on top of all of my other mods

    • Massively required, it depends on it for vision. However if you want to save frames you can still use the preset, but reset any of the vision paramaters to default

  • goddam thats the hard one, I love it

  • It plays "okay" for me (SAIN 3.1.1 test release) but whole raid is so passive it's just... meh.


    Although, of course, it could be the quirkies of a newest SAIN version which isn't available rn on spt hub, but heh, i would like to see a much more aggressive PMCs and a little bit harder in terms of shooting

    • Hmm, for me it extends gunfights quite a bit. It doesn't change the AI's aggression (aggressive AI still push), what other AI influencing mods do you have? Without Realism for example it's not hardcore at all

  • Thank you for your work, I like your preset. It´s more the way I like to play... :thumbup:

  • Just a small tip for Github, if you upload it as a release - you can just link the .zip download directly.


    Once you upload the release, right click the release .zip and copy the direct link to it and use that instead.


    Gonna give this preset a go, thank you for your work!

    • Thanks for the heads up, I cleaned up the file a bit

  • This goes into Plugins right? I cant find the preset for it in SAIN

    • Oh no, I’ll fix up the linked file, but you should just drag and drop into the main directory of the mod. It’ll automatically add itself to the correct folder

    • Can confirm that its now appearing! Thanks for the update! Will let you know how it plays out

    • Can confirm that the mod is really good! Really appreciate the mod, everything is running well and the AI are great.

  • Great thumbnail reference

  • After testing across every map, during day and night cycles, and using the following mods listed below, this has been an AWESOME preset where the bots hear me at a fair distance, and are able to engage one another fairly across the map once gunfire starts.

    I still recommend turning OFF Faster CQB reactions and "always aim center mass" for SAIN.

    MOD stack I use:
    SAIN 3.1.0 and Solaraint's Bullet Crack FIX 1.0, SWAG-DONUTS 3.5.1, REALISM 1.4..4, SPT 3.9.5, That's Lit 1.394.01, FIKA (server + client), Unicorn 1.1 spawn points for SWAG, and a bunch of QOL mods for GUI/Graphics changes that don't affect bots. Thank you, Tritantrfl7 this mod rocks! :thumbup: :)

    • Thanks man, but honestly all credit goes to Solarint for making the process so easy and intuitive. He laid out the framework to make presets fairly simply.

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    • why would you turn off faster cqb and always center mass?

    • Faster CQB reactions make the bots react too quickly in close distance and denies the player a chance to fight them in a surprise face-to-face.

      Always center mass causes too many stomach blackouts and almost no scatter on recoil spread for limb hits. It's an old issue with SAIN he is working to fix in the newest test builds. But for now, this is the fix to prevent the issue of bots lasering your chest and stomach at all times.

    • I'm going to try your presets, thanks man!

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  • the best!.. i try it with my more than 100 mods.. plenty pmc and scav try to ambush me.. lol

    other should know this mod for their preset SAIN.. not yet try with newest SAIN

  • sounds interesting! i'm try, thank you!

  • Base on which version of SAIN？ Is it ok with SAIN 3.1.1 Test Build 1 ？

    • According to Solarint’s GitHub this should work

  • does this work on the new test version