My one true wish

[ZimZum514]

So far, I'm loving some of the additions coming in GS. I know everyone wants better AI and whatnot. That may be something that gets improved slightly, but likely not seeing a huge overhaul. That gets me to my one true wish. Better pathfinding! If I send a unit 25 tiles away, I don't care that there is another unit in the final spot until right before my guy is about to step into it. Sadly, Civ notices right away and makes me re-route. Has anyone seen any clue to if the Devs are thinking about reworking it, so the unit evaluates as it goes?

 

[SupremacyKing2]

That's why I do my path finding manually (ie click what adjacent tile I want the unit to move to turn by turn) and never just click a destination 25 tiles away.

 

[ZimZum514]

That's why I do my path finding manually (ie click what adjacent tile I want the unit to move to turn by turn) and never just click a destination 25 tiles away.

That's how I handle it now as well, but it seems like a quality of life thing that I don't really recall as much in previous iterations. That could just be selective memory though.

 

[SammyKhalifa]

That's why I do my path finding manually (ie click what adjacent tile I want the unit to move to turn by turn) and never just click a destination 25 tiles away.

I usually do to but that's one of the biggest "waste of time" issues that people complain about.

 

[SupremacyKing2]

That's how I handle it now as well, but it seems like a quality of life thing that I don't really recall as much in previous iterations. That could just be selective memory though.

I think pathfinding got worse when Firaxis introduced 1upt. Before 1upt, units could occupy the same tile, so pathfinding was more direct. Units could just take the shortest path to the destination. But with 1upt, since units cannot occupy the same tile at the same time, pathfinding becomes much more challenging because now each unit is an obstacle that other units have to get around. To make matters worse, other units are moving too, so your obstacles are shifting every turn. It's like finding a path through a maze where the walls are constantly moving each turn. It's a much more challenging problem. I would often get frustrated playing Civ5 and Beyond Earth because sometimes when you clicked a destination just 5 tiles away, the computer would send the unit on the long round about 50 tile path because units were blocking the direct path. I wish Firaxis would just program the unit to still take the short path and just auto skip a turn if the path is blocked.

 

[ZimZum514]

I think pathfinding got worse when Firaxis introduced 1upt. Before 1upt, units could occupy the same tile, so pathfinding was more direct. Units could just take the shortest path to the destination. But with 1upt, since units cannot occupy the same tile at the same time, pathfinding becomes much more challenging because now each unit is an obstacle that other units have to get around. To make matters worse, other units are moving too, so your obstacles are shifting every turn. It's like finding a path through a maze where the walls are constantly moving each turn. It's a much more challenging problem. I would often get frustrated playing Civ5 and Beyond Earth because sometimes when you clicked a destination just 5 tiles away, the computer would send the unit on the long round about 50 tile path because units were blocking the direct path. I wish Firaxis would just program the unit to still take the short path and just auto skip a turn if the path is blocked.

I totally agree that this is a byproduct of 1UPT. However, I think it could be avoided by the user saying "go from Point A to Point Z", then on each turn the unit would do a check to make sure the tile it wants to move to is open. Point A to Point B is clear, so I'll go. I won't worry about Point Y to Point Z until I'm right there. That would allow the user to focus on the big picture, while the unit itself only cares about single tile to tile movement. If a roadblock hits that next tile, then reroute or wait.

 

[WillowBrook]

I would often get frustrated playing Civ5 and Beyond Earth because sometimes when you clicked a destination just 5 tiles away, the computer would send the unit on the long round about 50 tile path because units were blocking the direct path.

This happens in VI, too. It gets really weird and annoying in water, where I have trouble remembering what units can pass through other civ's units. The blue line never shows it to be possible, but, for example, my embarked worker can pass through another civ's navel unit if it had two movement points left and I right click on the other side of the ship. But it can't pass through another civ's embarked warrior and will pick a crazy path around it (if possible), if I right click on the other side of the unit. (I'm pretty sure that's the way it worked for me last night as I was exploring the world's coasts with a worker...)

 

[SupremacyKing2]

I totally agree that this is a byproduct of 1UPT. However, I think it could be avoided by the user saying "go from Point A to Point Z", then on each turn the unit would do a check to make sure the tile it wants to move to is open. Point A to Point B is clear, so I'll go. I won't worry about Point Y to Point Z until I'm right there. That would allow the user to focus on the big picture, while the unit itself only cares about single tile to tile movement. If a roadblock hits that next tile, then reroute or wait.

I think just adding a "wait" function to the pathfinding would be enough to fix the problem since often if a unit just waited a couple turns, the path would open up. Have the unit check if the adjacent tile that it needs to move to is clear, if yes, then move, if no, then "skip turn". Then next turn, it can run the check again. Of course, if you had multiple units all trying to enter the same tile, you would need to prioritize who gets to go first, But it would still solve a lot of the path finding problems.

 

[ZimZum514]

I think just adding a "wait" function to the pathfinding would be enough to fix the problem since often if a unit just waited a couple turns, the path would open up. Have the unit check if the adjacent tile that it needs to move to is clear, if yes, then move, if no, then "skip turn". Then next turn, it can run the check again. Of course, if you had multiple units all trying to enter the same tile, you would need to prioritize who gets to go first, But it would still solve a lot of the path finding problems.

And, the check programming is already there. The problem is that it checks the final destination, not the adjacent tile to current position.

 

[AriochIV]

I know everyone wants better AI and whatnot. That may be something that gets improved slightly, but likely not seeing a huge overhaul. That gets me to my one true wish. Better pathfinding!

Pathfinding is technically part of the AI, so... sadface.

 

[SupremacyKing2]

And, the check programming is already there. The problem is that it checks the final destination, not the adjacent tile to current position.

So Firaxis just needs to adjust that then.

 

[ZimZum514]

So Firaxis just needs to adjust that then.

Well, it may be more complicated depending on how it was programmed, but it is definitely checking on each turn. I don't know if there is some performance hit that I'm not thinking of, or if they simply don't consider it an issue since I'm sure many players micromanage their unit movement anyway to be more efficient. I'm a laid back player and often send out an exploring unit to a certain spot and don't worry too much if it takes 10 turns or 15, but I can see how that wouldn't be optimal in a more intense game style.

 

[SammyKhalifa]

Well, it may be more complicated depending on how it was programmed, but it is definitely checking on each turn. I don't know if there is some performance hit that I'm not thinking of, or if they simply don't consider it an issue since I'm sure many players micromanage their unit movement anyway to be more efficient. I'm a laid back player and often send out an exploring unit to a certain spot and don't worry too much if it takes 10 turns or 15, but I can see how that wouldn't be optimal in a more intense game style.

But it's also part of the reason why I don't like big empires even though I know they're better. Too many things you have to do manually like that. I should be able to pick a waypoint for my units, and then not worry about them for a while spending the next few turns doing other things.

 

[bite]

This is the one thing about the game in the current state that annoys me enough to stop playing