[0.86][issue] Pathfinding Near Cities, and is there a unit-in-city limit?

from Elemental Forums

I can't imagine that this is the very first post on the inconsistencies of pathfinding near cities, but I haven't seen any talk about it recently, or, IIRC, at all from the developers. Basically, if you have resources or stamps near a city, your city will adopt some wierd shapes. I don't really want to break out the graphics, but imagine if your city is a square in each direction away from a river, a lumber mill, and it's kitty corner to an iron mine. It will not be rectangle-shaped.

 

Any such shape seems to confuse the hell out of the AI. Sometimes, if you are sending a unit that is on a tile next to a city to another tile next to that city, the unit will move there without having used any of its movement points. Other times, it will decide to foot it around the city, which, lest we forget, is about 6 months of game time. THIS MATTERS: If i have some units I want to keep in a city, while a reinforcing army takes care of a threatening enemy one, I want to attack that army THIS TURN. Or, at the very least, to know that I can't attack that army this turn before I send my unit on a 3-turn trip through a nearby forest.

 

Finally, there appears to be some kind of cap on how many units can be in a city tile. Some armies just *wont* go into a city if there are already units there. Is this a bug, and if not, what is the cap and how are the players supposed to be informed of it?

3,091 views 5 replies
Reply #1 from Elemental Forums Top

I can't imagine that this is the very first post on the inconsistencies of pathfinding near cities, but I haven't seen any talk about it recently, or, IIRC, at all from the developers
End of quote

No it's not the first post, we've just gotten tired of talking about it.  It's horrible.  It's so bad that I frequently move my armies one tile at a time, and move them piecemeal through towns if speed is critical.

As for the cap, yes there is a cap, and Frogboy has posted that there wasn't supposed to be, and the cap will be lifted in a future patch.

Reply #2 from Elemental Forums Top

Cities are capped at the number of units that can be displayed on the HUD, which is 9.

Siege of Centauri
Reply #3 from Elemental Forums Top

Quoting Publius, reply 1
I can't imagine that this is the very first post on the inconsistencies of pathfinding near cities, but I haven't seen any talk about it recently, or, IIRC, at all from the developers

No it's not the first post, we've just gotten tired of talking about it.  It's horrible.  It's so bad that I frequently move my armies one tile at a time, and move them piecemeal through towns if speed is critical.
End of Publius's quote

This. 

I have to suspect that their engine has some big problems.

The second part of this problem is having all units in any army have the lowest possible amount of movement points.  (My dog/shadow warg should start the turn with 4 movement points even if it is in the same army as my 2mp sovereign/champion, for example.  And a unit passing through a city should not reduce the movement points of all units in the city.)

Reply #4 from Elemental Forums Top

Quoting feelotraveller, reply 3

Quoting Publius of NV, reply 1
No it's not the first post, we've just gotten tired of talking about it.  It's horrible.  It's so bad that I frequently move my armies one tile at a time, and move them piecemeal through towns if speed is critical.


This. 

I have to suspect that their engine has some big problems.

The second part of this problem is having all units in any army have the lowest possible amount of movement points.  (My dog/shadow warg should start the turn with 4 movement points even if it is in the same army as my 2mp sovereign/champion, for example.  And a unit passing through a city should not reduce the movement points of all units in the city.)
End of feelotraveller's quote

I agree so much ^^

Sincerely
~ Kongdej

Reply #5 from Elemental Forums Top

Much agreement all around with everything here...