Units don't path properly

[Kolyana]

Anyone else pretty disgusted with the way units path from A to B?

Sea units seem to go in zigzags when a straight line would be just as safe .. but shorter. Infantry units stop dead because they can't figure out how to step off the railroad, move around the blocking unit and then get back on the railroad again.

Is it really that complicated to develop a proper pathing system?

[Grumbold]

I've had no problems. Units cheerfully dodge round rail blockages but I've not really looked at the ships.

[Hywel Dda]

You are sort of right and wrong at the same time. When there is more that one way of getting from A to B in the same number of moves, the AI often chooses a very odd route, often skipping sections of road etc.

But it always gets you to the destination as quickly as if you had gone by road anyway!

I think what's going on is that when the AI compares two routes that take the same number of turns, it sticks with the first route it found. This ends up with it choosing the most "roundabout" route that gets to the destination in time.

But it is *never* wrong about the number of turns it takes to get there, in my experience.

It would be nice though, if it took terrain into account. It sometimes leaves units stranded, between moves, in vulnerable positions when it could have left them on a mountain, or not near an enemy unit.

A possible patch for the future, then, would be for the AI to compare diffferent routes with the same speed in terms of where the units end up between turns.

Your point about blocking is right and wrong too, IMHO. There's probably a mathmatical way for the unit to "step off the railroad" and go around, but frankly if a situation like that occurs, I would want to intervene manually and not leave it to the AI to plan a route that might be dangerous.

[Bloodaxe]

Compared to the goto in civ 2 this one is magic. The only bug I've found with it is that the units don't check to see if you've built more roads/rail between moves. Sometimes I've built railways around a mountain but because I've told a unit to move before this it still climbs over the mountain rather than taking the railway.

[Hywel Dda]

That's interesting Bloodaxe, I'd not noticed that one. I'll bear it in mind when I'm doing road/rail improvements in the future.

Obviously you should stop any units on the route after finishing the improvement and ask them to "goto" the destination again.

Though obviously it would be nice if a future patch could check for units already on the route and recalculate the route automatically.

I'd assumed that the route was recalculated each turn anyway (that's how I'd've programmed it), but obviously the powers that be in Firaxis decided to "queue" the movement instructions and not work them out again after each move.

[Kolyana]

Several things I have noticed with my current game and mapping issues:

1. Workers make a decision about where the highest priority is, so if they are on automated they may decide to run off to the far reaches of your map.

If they bump into an obstacle on the way that wasn't in their path when they started - such as another countries unit - they stop dead, they don't know what to do.

In one instance I manually took over the unit in question, backed him up to another location, hit CTRL-A and he ran straight to the same blocked point.

2. I had Right of Passage with several allies as we pounded upon the Greeks. The problem came with several geographic bottle necks in the terrain .. my allies would park units there and we were unable to get passed. Automated units would grind to a halt, military units moving from A to C would grind to a halt.

With a Right of Passage, I think there should be an option to attack or move through, or something.

3. Several workers walked between two squares .. one rail, one road, back and forth several times ... without actually doing anything.

4. I had a cannon path a route through a mountain ... which, ofcourse, it couldn't get passed. Not sure wat this was about. It's almost as if the rail going through it was the only thing the cannon could see.

5. In the same vein, a sprawling rail and road network had one square blocked by an allied unit. They happened to be on a section that was rail and had road either side.

My automated unit was so desperate not to leave the rail road, that he couldn't figure out how to step off, go on the road, and go around. Again, staying on rail seems to have such a priority that terrain, other units and alternative routes don't seem to come into it.