So, whatever happened to "looking at pathfinding" ???

ArminW

A better pathfinding AI, especially for the party when moving as a group, was probably one of the most often requested things during development, and the default answer was "we're looking into this".
Well, now I'm playing the Firewine Dungeon, Cloakwood Base, Thieves Labyrinth and it's STILL the same old beheaded chicken dance...
There have been a dozen suggestions on possible improvements (like, allowing party members to move through ally-occupied spaces, which would even be in accordance to the p&p rules, or having a character wait a second when the path is blocked by a character or NPC and then retry the pathfinding etc.)
But still, it's impossible to move through narrow dungeons without painfully collecting the clucking hens running around in the most stupid, pathetic and suicidal way possible... ;-)
So, is the plan to do something about it finally dead?

Kirkor

ArminW said:

having a character wait a second when the path is blocked by a character or NPC and then retry the pathfinding etc.)

I think this was always in the game. When the path is still blocked, he finds new path and usually the new path is terrible one.

thedemoninside

He means the character should wait to find a new path. Right now, the path gets blocked and the blocked character finds a dumb route around instead of waiting for a few seconds.

Even that solution has its problems though. If an archer is attacking a mob and blocks a melee, then the melee would stand there like an idiot instead of finding an alternate path. Ideally the best solution is to make your characters able to pass through each other.

Anton

From (Eurogamer.net) Enhancing Baldur's Gate: the BioWare veterans who dared

Incidentally, the pathfinding in BG:EE is set to maximum which is why there is no slider. The actual problems with pathfinding run deep. "It's something we're really aware of," Oster says. "We've done some experiments with it. The problem was that when we changed it, it fundamentally broke big parts of what Baldur's Gate was. It would break cut-scenes, it would break the ability to get through certain areas.

"This was one of those curator decisions: we could fundamentally change what the game is and potentially make it better but we risk breaking a tonne of things, so we made the call to keep the pathfinding where it is."

Pathfinding related topics:
http://forum.baldursgate.com/discussion/2835/so-about-pathfinding
http://forum.baldursgate.com/discussion/3215/pathfinding-upgrade
http://forum.baldursgate.com/discussion/9509/pathfinding-glitches
http://forum.baldursgate.com/discussion/178/path-finding-keep-close-to-leader
http://forum.baldursgate.com/discussion/903/aipathfindingformation-ideas-walk-in-leaders-fsteps-upd-formation-ideas-360-rot
http://forum.baldursgate.com/discussion/2631/pathing

ArminW

Anton said:

From (Eurogamer.net) Enhancing Baldur's Gate: the BioWare veterans who dared
(...)

Thanks for the info... sigh.

I guess it's back to hearding the beheaded chickens...