Pathfinding and Unit Movement Bugs

posted on July 21st, 2009, 2:46 pm

Well, like the title says, there seem to be some odd bugs/irritations here... for instance, construction ships and freighters tend to get "stuck" when going around the starbase to get to a moon or a construction site on the other side. Likewise, if you click for your Rhienns or B'rels to move somewhere more than once in succession, they will stop and then speed up again--losing you valuable time (which enables them to get knocked about by vessels which do not have such problems--like Dominion Bugs, or Sabers). Borg Detectors also seem not to fire always on units well within their range if you don't specifically target a unit nearby. Many Borg units tend to get "stuck" on one another or "dance" and refuse to move. B'rels and SuS'a's tend to try and target units furthest away from them, and sometimes will not even fire when moving even if they are right up against a potential target (it seems they are still interested in targetting a unit that is not even with their sensor range...). There are more of these, but I really think something needs to be done about this... as it makes certain units extremely irritating to use (or even entire factions--like the Klingons) and generally makes it frustrating to play certain games (especially when you aren't sure whether it is the unit movement, or the lag that is delaying your control over the unit in question). 

posted on July 21st, 2009, 3:03 pm

I've noticed these "bugs" as well. Construction ships stuck behind torpedo platforms rufusing to fly through. The entire thing with the Klingons.

Also, have you noticed that when you have several groups of vessels (I mean 30-50) and you set them all to low movement autonomy, that in situations when you are close to enemy base (like 1,5 artillery range) and you order all those units to fly to one place only, they will forget their "low movement autonomy settings" and go pay a visit to enemy defences. This happens to me only when those ships arrive to the place i sent them to and since they can't all fit in there, they try to find a place for them among all those other ships and it that instance, when your ships are looking for their "spot" to park, they will ignore their movement settings and attack.

posted on July 21st, 2009, 3:06 pm

they will forget their "low movement autonomy settings" and go pay a visit to enemy defences. This happens to me only when those ships arrive to the place i sent them to and since they can't all fit in there, they try to find a place for them among all those other ships and it that instance, when your ships are looking for their "spot" to park, they will ignore their movement settings and attack.

Attacking enemies is the domain of alerts (Red, Yellow, Green), not movement.

posted on July 21st, 2009, 3:08 pm

Ha!
I didn't know that, must try that out.
Thanks! 

posted on July 21st, 2009, 3:10 pm

So.. you're saying that "red alert" + "low movement autonomy setting" makes your units fly towards enemies?

posted on July 21st, 2009, 3:12 pm

Hmm, that shouldn't happen. Your units should stay still and not engage the enemy until they are within weapons range.

posted on July 21st, 2009, 3:13 pm

Which doesn't happen in situation I described. So it might be a small bug.

posted on July 21st, 2009, 3:14 pm

As far as I know, movemet determines how far they chase the enemy. High would hound them forever, medium would follow for a limited time, not sure about low.

Hmm, that shouldn't happen. Your units should stay still and not engage the enemy until they are within weapons range.

My ships (stock and FO) will go for whatever enters Sensor range when on Red alert.

posted on July 21st, 2009, 3:19 pm

Well, I've seen it dozens of times, an enemy ship flies around my ships a they will just fire but they will not pursue at all.

posted on July 21st, 2009, 3:24 pm

Hmm, I was pretty sure that low movement autonomy means that the ship shouldn't move from it's position (medium means that they will move to intercept passing ships, but will go back to their original spots).

Red Alert of course means they will engage immediately, yellow means engage when attacked, and green, not at all.

posted on July 21st, 2009, 3:29 pm

So this might be a bug after all. Anyway I hope you understand the situation i described, It wasn't easy to come up with proper words...

posted on July 22nd, 2009, 5:20 am

Adding to the pathfinding problem, I've noticed that many a time ships (of any size or class) will sometimes get stuck flying towards asteroid belts or almost any station as if they didn't realize they have to go around them.  This is easily noticeable with scouts ordered to explore, they will often get stuck while doing their exploring.  I noticed this was a problem in stock A2, but it seemed to only happen when warping, never really noticed it otherwise.