v480 Pathfinding Report

[Sensuki]

Based on my testing so far, units now properly detect the first shortest path between other units, which means that out of combat pathfinding is now very good.

However, I believe that the unit noclip is a drastic overcompensation and is only going to cause issues with the gameplay, on top of being immersion breaking and not looking good.

I think the collision size for units should be increased back to selection circle size, or perhaps a tiny bit smaller. The more units can overlap their selection circles, the more you can abuse the engagement system as well (as it's the overlapping of unit engagement radii that allows the abuse to occur).

Now for the issues with the clipping

The hard clipping occurs when you issue a new movement command to a unit that is already moving and is basically next to the selection circle of another unit. If the pathing vector crosses that unit, they will just walk straight through them, as that probably 'qualifies' for there not being enough space or something. I'm not sure why it occurs, but that's when it occurs anyway.

Obviously I have not played all maps, but from what I've seen (I can see the small version of EVERY map in the game files) that Area Design mostly compensates for pathing issues in tight spaces by keeping corridors and areas open for the vast majority of areas - save the very early developed Vertical Slice areas such as the Dyford Crossing and Ruins. Stormwall Gorge and Lle A Rhemen are fair examples of this.

There are some pathing issues in combat, but I believe they are caused by AI, not by the pathing system itself.

So based on my findings I would like to see the following

• No breaking of unit collision rules
• selection circle size or slightly smaller than selection circle size collision

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There's also probably some genius that is going to think of the solution of "what if we simply teleport the units to the closest avaliable space when combat begins", and that (retarded) solution will be rife for abuse as well, because you will be able to set up a stack of units to abuse the teleport and probably get free disengagement attacks because the enemy units will have all issued move commands, and your newly teleported unit with their snappy engagement will get the same engagement attacks that a burrowing Stone Beetle gets against nearby moving targets that have to move to strike it.

 

Noclip seems like a solution for a poor pathing system, but the new changes are good - and noclip is really unnecessary - out of combat pathing should be pretty good now.

Edited March 14, 2015 by Sensuki

[AmbroseB]

 

 

There's also probably some genius that is going to think of the solution of "what if we simply teleport the units to the closest avaliable space when combat begins", and that (retarded) solution will be rife for abuse as well

 

If you're hoping the developers of the game will pay attention to you, you might want to stop this sort of childish use of aggressive language. 

[drunetovich]

There is a simple solution, engagement state should not trigger immediately, but should rather build up over time, like in about 5 seconds. So you will get only 10% of disengage damage if immediately retreating from egagement.

[Sensuki]

If you're hoping the developers of the game will pay attention to you, you might want to stop this sort of childish use of aggressive language.

Hello SomethingAwful.

 

There is a simple solution, engagement state should not trigger immediately, but should rather build up over time, like in about 5 seconds. So you will get only 10% of disengage damage if immediately retreating from egagement.

This is not a problem with engagement, they don't even need to use no clipping because the pathfinding code is very good now. It's a redundant solution that only causes problems - and there are good reasons why it's virtually never used in top down realtime games.

Edited March 14, 2015 by Sensuki

[AmbroseB]

 

If you're hoping the developers of the game will pay attention to you, you might want to stop this sort of childish use of aggressive language.

Hello SomethingAwful.

 

 

I have no idea what that means, but sure, go on with that attitude. I hope someday you grow up and recognize the value of basic respect.

[Cantousent]

I approved Ambrose's post because it's probably unfair to allow a one sided argument. ...But, come on guys, don't make it so that I have decide whether or not to approve snarky posts or I'm just going to snip the bulk out of this thread. Shake hands. Punch each other on the shoulder. Sacrifice a goat. Do whatever the cool kids do to 'bury the hatchet' these days. :Cant's huge grin icon: