[NFP] [1.0.8.4] Pathfind is really weird sometimes and make units waste turns

[PiR]

I have to micro manage my settlers so that they arrive quickly where I want them to go.

Example here:





For just one more tile, the settler will take 7 more turns to go from the other side of the planet


Moreover, the 15 turns seems unappropriate, it's because with this way, he decides to cross a lot of land, but by sea he could go there almost as fast I'm sure.

 

[PiR]

Another example for this builder.

Here it believes it has 6 movement points and it proposes to take the straight way to go to the amber, but getting on the land will take all of the movement points:




Whereas if I micromanage it, and go around the earth, through the water, and I don't waste 1 turn

 

[PiR]

Same NFP 1.0.8.4 after December update.

Another example with this hero


How can it propose 7 turns on the second screenshot to get there, if it's just one tile more than the first screenshot, where the movement can be done in 5?

Save attached

 

[HiRezAudio]

Sadly this is an old, old issue.
I have seen many examples of this - for example a builder that needs to go from one coastal resource to the next will often be 'pathfindered' over land rather than going around the coast even though it is much slower.
Been like this for a long, long time now.

 

[PiR]

Yes because the game doesn't know that the number of tile movements will be different once on land.

 

[PiR]

And yet it knows enough to tell you in advance not to go on an unoccupied tile.

 

[HiRezAudio]

Yes because the game doesn't know that the number of tile movements will be different once on land.

Yet again, bad programming. If the pathfinder cannot tell the difference between dry land & sea tiles, then what use is it?
It really is close to useless - for grits & shins, try training a scout in the early game, operate it manually for a while & then when you reach the inevitable barbarian camp, run away.
Now switch to auto explore - in 90% of cases the very first place it will go to is the one you just ran away from - even if there are unexplored regions in an alternative direction!

 

[HiRezAudio]

And yet it knows enough to tell you in advance not to go on an unoccupied tile.

View attachment 580514

Colour me stoopid, but I don't understand (sorry, probably not had enough coffee).
What's the isolated Hex all about?

 

[PiR]

Yet again, bad programming. If the pathfinder cannot tell the difference between dry land & sea tiles, then what use is it?
It really is close to useless - for grits & shins, try training a scout in the early game, operate it manually for a while & then when you reach the inevitable barbarian camp, run away.
Now switch to auto explore - in 90% of cases the very first place it will go to is the one you just ran away from - even if there are unexplored regions in an alternative direction!

I never tried autoexplore
But yeah, now I design and check all the paths manually. Specially since my unprotected settler preferred to cross enemy lands rather than go take a swim and get there faster.

Colour me stoopid, but I don't understand (sorry, probably not had enough coffee).
What's the isolated Hex all about?

There is a unit there that is not mine, so I cannot go and occupy that tile.
Note that this completely kills the principle of the fog of war... I should have that information only once I see the unit.

 

[HiRezAudio]

I never tried autoexplore
But yeah, now I design and check all the paths manually. Specially since my unprotected settler preferred to cross enemy lands rather than go take a swim and get there faster.

There is a unit there that is not mine, so I cannot go and occupy that tile.
Note that this completely kills the principle of the fog of war... I should have that information only once I see the unit.

Okay - gotcha.
That is worth knowing even though it has to be considered an 'exploit'.