View Issue Details
| ID | Project | Category | Date Submitted | Last Update | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 0006035 | Valley 1 | Gameplay Issue | Feb 20, 2012 2:01 am | Mar 19, 2012 2:05 pm | |
| Reporter | Jalen Wanderer | Assigned To | Chris_McElligottPark | ||
| Status | resolved | Resolution | fixed | ||
| Product Version | 0.579 | ||||
| Fixed in Version | 0.909 | ||||
| Summary | 0006035: NPC pathfinding on rescue missions gets them stuck | ||||
| Description | The pathfinding for NPCs in rescue missions could maybe use some work... they tend to get stuck pretty easily. Most of the time, it's not much more than a minor inconvenience, but in one case there was a corner right under the exit that it was virtually impossible to coax the NPC to follow me through. I've attached a screenshot to better explain (the screenshot was taken after the NPC was rescued and I came back to take a screenshot (yes, eventually I did somehow manage to get her around the corner and out, but it took for frikkin' ever and was a horrible exercise in frustration)... I probably should have taken the screenshot with the NPC still there, but didn't think of it at the time.) The NPC kept getting stuck to the right of the small square block just above the pool. She just hovered there, and refused to follow me. Sometimes if I stood at water level, she'd come out under the block, but then when I jumped up she'd return to the right of the block instead of following me to the block's left. I tried sticking crates to her right so she couldn't go back there, but she just destroyed the crates. Sometimes it got worse and she for some reason decided to float INTO THE WATER and sit there taking damage; even then, when I went up, she returned to her position to the right of the block. As I said, eventually I somehow got her to follow me up to the exit, but only after an extreme amount of frustration. (Oh... that "fatal error" message has nothing to do with this matter, of course; that's related to another bug I reported: http://www.arcengames.com/mantisbt/view.php?id=6034 ) | ||||
| Tags | No tags attached. | ||||
| Internal Weight | New | ||||
| has duplicate | 0006633 | resolved | Chris_McElligottPark | rescue in cave rescuee won't move |
| related to | 0006078 | resolved | Chris_McElligottPark | NPC Rescue mission chunk - passages are not always wide enough for NPC to navigate. |
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They don't pathfind -- they come to where you are. It's your job to lead them. |
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And by the way -- if you duck, they drop down in height a bit. |
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Er... I think perhaps I was explaining things badly; I guess I shouldn't have used the word "pathfinding". Yes, I understand it's the player's job to lead the NPCs, but in this case the NPC completely refused to follow. The NPC didn't come to where I was; that's the problem. Getting the NPC to drop down in height wasn't the issue; even if I dropped down all the way into the water, the NPC didn't follow... she matched my height vertically, but wouldn't come over to me horizontally. There was no obstacle impeding her from following me, and no obvious reason she shouldn't have, but she did not come to where I was. And when I went back up, she returned to the right of the block. I don't know what it was that did finally get her to follow me after all, but as I said it was only after a long period of fruitless frustration. (I wish I'd saved a copy of the world file with the NPC in that position...) |
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I see -- that means a monster was around, probably. NPCs hang back when there are monsters nearby. |
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Ah... whoops. As you posted that, I'd just reopened the issue, and made a long post explaining why and hoping that I wasn't out of line... if I'd seen your post first, I wouldn't have done that. Actually, I think there were monsters above, so you may be right. It's possible that I did at some point go up and kill the monsters, and that it's after that the NPC followed me. |
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It could be that NPCs should not hang back when there are monsters around, but I was figuring that could be annoying. I'm not sure. |
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Maybe their tolerance for monsters should be related to their proximity to you? So if you're stood right next to them, they'll come with you regardless; but if you move too far away, they'll retreat from monsters more readily. |
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I don't know... I can see the reason for it, it's just that in this case because of exactly where it occurred I assumed it was the tight corner that was at fault (and it was especially annoying because my attempts to get the NPC to follow me sometimes made her dive into the water and take damage). But that's just a special circumstance in this one case. Had I known that the NPC was hanging back because there were monsters around, I would have just gone up and killed the monsters sooner and wouldn't have been so frustrated by her refusal to follow. But I'm not sure what could reasonably be done about it; I guess it was just an unfortunate happenstance in this one case. |
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That wouldn't work, because you could never get away from them. But I had thought of making them stay very close to you, but making it so that you could press confirm on them to have them stay where they are until you come back to them again, or something like that. |
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Good point! I think there's an idea in there somewhere with my idea, despite that obvious flaw... but I like yours too! Gives it a sort of Ico feel, which can only be a good thing. |
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A possible solution would be to reduce the minimum distance which the NPC will travel towards the player. In other words, they would not stop right next to the player, but attempt to move almost directly on top of the player. This would make it easier to get them around a tricky bend, or move out of an alcove. For instance, in one rescue mission, the exit door was right next to a solid wall. No matter how close I moved the glyphbearer towards the wall, the NPC was not able to get within the door radius to complete the mission. If they attempted to move directly on top of the player, this would be resolved as well. |
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The pathing from the fire breath and similar only functions for entities that are smaller than one tile in size -- NPCs are two tiles high, however. |
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Related, I think: attached world with NPC in a deep cavern sikrit rescue mission stuck in scenery. Not in a box or plant or can't foolow me properly, but in the side of a scenery platform. :( Haven't figured out a way to make him move ... |
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Thanks! * Made a couple of key pathfinding improvements to the NPC pathfinding to keep them from getting stuck on terrain edges. ** Also made it so that they now hover higher again, like they used to, rather than hovering by your feet. |
| Date Modified | Username | Field | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Feb 20, 2012 2:01 am | Jalen Wanderer | New Issue | |
| Feb 20, 2012 2:03 am | Jalen Wanderer | File Added: Screenshot_2012_02_19_20_11_11.png | |
| Feb 20, 2012 7:59 am | Chris_McElligottPark | Internal Weight | => New |
| Feb 20, 2012 7:59 am | Chris_McElligottPark | Note Added: 0019431 | |
| Feb 20, 2012 7:59 am | Chris_McElligottPark | Status | new => closed |
| Feb 20, 2012 7:59 am | Chris_McElligottPark | Assigned To | => Chris_McElligottPark |
| Feb 20, 2012 7:59 am | Chris_McElligottPark | Resolution | open => won't fix |
| Feb 20, 2012 8:00 am | Chris_McElligottPark | Note Added: 0019432 | |
| Feb 20, 2012 12:58 pm | Jalen Wanderer | Note Added: 0019451 | |
| Feb 20, 2012 1:07 pm | Chris_McElligottPark | Note Added: 0019452 | |
| Feb 20, 2012 1:07 pm | Jalen Wanderer | Status | closed => feedback |
| Feb 20, 2012 1:07 pm | Jalen Wanderer | Resolution | won't fix => reopened |
| Feb 20, 2012 1:08 pm | Jalen Wanderer | Note Added: 0019454 | |
| Feb 20, 2012 1:08 pm | Jalen Wanderer | Status | feedback => assigned |
| Feb 20, 2012 1:10 pm | Chris_McElligottPark | Note Added: 0019455 | |
| Feb 20, 2012 1:11 pm | Jalen Wanderer | Note Edited: 0019454 | |
| Feb 20, 2012 1:12 pm | zebramatt | Note Added: 0019456 | |
| Feb 20, 2012 1:14 pm | Jalen Wanderer | Note Added: 0019457 | |
| Feb 20, 2012 1:14 pm | Chris_McElligottPark | Note Added: 0019458 | |
| Feb 20, 2012 1:41 pm | zebramatt | Note Added: 0019463 | |
| Feb 22, 2012 9:48 pm | khadgar | Relationship added | child of 0006078 |
| Feb 22, 2012 9:48 pm | khadgar | Relationship deleted | child of 0006078 |
| Feb 22, 2012 9:48 pm | khadgar | Relationship added | related to 0006078 |
| Feb 22, 2012 9:56 pm | khadgar | Note Added: 0019634 | |
| Feb 22, 2012 9:58 pm | khadgar | Note Edited: 0019634 | |
| Feb 22, 2012 10:11 pm | Chris_McElligottPark | Note Added: 0019636 | |
| Mar 16, 2012 5:38 am | Taverius | Note Added: 0020902 | |
| Mar 16, 2012 5:39 am | Taverius | File Added: Taveria.zip | |
| Mar 19, 2012 2:04 pm | Chris_McElligottPark | Note Added: 0021036 | |
| Mar 19, 2012 2:04 pm | Chris_McElligottPark | Status | assigned => resolved |
| Mar 19, 2012 2:04 pm | Chris_McElligottPark | Fixed in Version | => 0.909 |
| Mar 19, 2012 2:04 pm | Chris_McElligottPark | Resolution | reopened => fixed |
| Mar 19, 2012 2:05 pm | Chris_McElligottPark | Relationship added | has duplicate 0006633 |
| Apr 14, 2014 9:28 am | Chris_McElligottPark | Category | Gameplay - General Complaint => Gameplay Issue |
