Pathfinding of Death...

[ShadowVision]

Hello,

i have 2 (more or less) big issues with the Pathfinding of the game. Not only the NPC's don't understand how to haul their stuff from one place to another, no, they also start going to some weird places i never pointed to.

Hauling

My NPC's have Problems with different "Storages" of the same type too close to another, so they stop doing anything. Or they start to get Stuff and put it back again - and this in a endless loop.

Example 1: My Iron-Refinery, Ore-Mine and Ore-Storage-Box are close to another (like 5M between them). My Refinery-Labourer moves to the Ore-Box and hauls the Ore, but than he stops working. If i give him a simple "move-command" he puts the iron into the Refinery and than he will work again for some time (hauling stuff included). Same Setup, but from my Miners-Viewpoint. If the Ore-Box is full they should move the Ore into the Refinery, but they don't do this so they stop working after they have 5 Ores in their inventory.

Example 2: 2 Electrical Storages very close to another, my Engineers and also the Electrical-Workbench Dude have problems to haul their stuff in/out of these Boxes, like they can't decide what storage to use. Same thing happens when i have 2 Iron-Plates Storages close to another in my Smithy.

"I never said you should go there"

This is my biggest issue, because it happens a lot and often results in "unnecessary death -> load old savegame"-Scenarios. These are also the reason for the title. It's frustrating because you just send your traders on a "safe route" to your neighbors and, if i'm not aware of this, they get killed on the other side of the world.

It doesn't matter if i give direct orders, or orders via world map. Distance, Location and Squad-Size are also not relevant. If i give a full squad a movement order from A to B, some of them will - at some point - (maybe) decide to go somewhere else. No Interaction with them is required to "confuse" them. This also happens with single orders to single persons.

Example 1: A recruit was in "The Hub" and i gave him the order to move to my Outpost near "Bad Teeth". After some Time i saw him getting attacked, i checked his status and... well he was near Mud-Town close to "Shark". Order: "Go North-East" -> Execution: "Nah, i like South more".

And no, i didn't clicked the wrong place.

Example 2: In another run i had a Base close to Blister Hill, right in front of the "river-cliffs". I gave my Traders the command "Go from Base to Blister Hill" or the other way around and i often catch them near Rebirth, somewhere around Mongrel, some times they went to the Hives or the swamplands.


I'm the only one with these issues?

[swillo]

You are not alone.
The main thing with sending them on cross country treks, is that they will always take the road. Even if that road is farther from their location then the actual destination. Also I think the pathfinding works backward from the destination as they will pick the road nearest were they want to be, and then back track any roads they can find to the start.
If you send them off road to a closer location it works better. The farther you send them the more choices they have to make and the better the odds they will make a bad one.

[ShadowVision]

Yeah, i saw that they prefer to take the roads and this could sometimes lead to some "strange behaviors".

But even if they only have to use the road from a to b, these issues happen. Like i said in my 2nd example: I had a base close to Blister Hill, my Main-Gate was directly in front of the road that leads to Blister Hill, so my Trader had an easy Job. Even in this Situation the NPC's decide to go somewhere totally different.

So i think the roads could be a part of this problem, but i don't think this is the main problem. I mean... i don't have any problems if they take a longer route because of the streets-system, i have a problem with the fact that they sometimes decide - out of nowhere, in the middle of their tour and without any new interaction - to move to places that aren't even close to the destination. If i send a Squad of 10 ppl from Admag to Worlds End, the chances are high that someone will end somewhere around of Clownsteady - and that's not even close to Worlds End.

[Hatsune_Neko]

long range pathing has been an issue for a while, even short range.

i keep shaking my head at the path the AI takes my people over to get to a spot. sometimes double and triple crossing the same path as it tries to figure out where it should go.

[ShadowVision]

I had a long break in Kenshi since a long time and i can't remember that i had these problems before, but my mind could fool me here.

But do you 2 also have these Problems with the "Storages are too close to another"-thing? I need to rebuild parts of my base, only because of the problem that my workers don't make their hauling-stuff properly when they don't need to run to the storage. In reality you would build your stuff mostly close to another, so your worker just needs to turn arround - and this is what i've done - but this seems like a big issue here. I don't encounter these issues when they need to walk 15m or more to different storages.

A part of this Problem could be a hidden forced "walk to storage/machine" command, that - if not necessary - will not executed because the storage is close enough, so he only needs to turn arround, and the worker doesn't unload his stuff because the first "walk to" command is still active.

This doesn't seem to be a part my other problem where my Engineers won't know from what storage they should take their stuff (if there are 2 electrical components storages side by side for example), but it would explain some stuff. ^^

[Hatsune_Neko]

have not had the storage is to close issue.

[Pyracles]

Part of the problem appears to me to be one of collisions, where your characters bump into, or think they are going to bump into some other character or creature. That seems to switch them onto an alternative route that is often extremely daft.

I see this a lot when I select a group of characters and send them off on some long range trip. At some point the group is likely to split into 2 separate groups following different widely separated routes to the same place. I've been following them with the camera when this has happened, and it literally looks like two characters walking close to each other suddenly diverge. The diverging character fixes on his new route and doesn't reconsider his choice ever.

I think it's possible for this to also happen for a single character if he bumps into an NPC at a gate, he'll turn around and go out the other gate. This will usually put him on a very bizarre route because the road from the other gate is invariably less direct than hist first choice.

[Rambler]

I've seen the long range pathfinding problem before and think the gate might be causing it, especially if the gate is locked. Unlocking the gate has stopped my squad members from taking long detours before, you can also try setting up multiple gates at your base although this makes it easier for bandits and raptors to get inside as well.