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Author Topic: How does the pathing/shooting bug work?  (Read 1552 times)

Free Beer

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How does the pathing/shooting bug work?
« on: September 05, 2009, 09:46:16 am »

I seem to recall that critters do not activate ranged powers if they cannot path to the thing they want to shoot. Does this reasoning work for things with bows and crossbows as well? How about Dwarves with crossbows?

Furthermore, wouldn't it be kind of easy to fix? I'm assuming that they already also perform LOS checks, so it would simply be a matter of removing the path check from the AI.
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Bricks

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Re: How does the pathing/shooting bug work?
« Reply #1 on: September 05, 2009, 10:15:47 am »

Yes, it applies to dwarves.  Sometimes they just freeze up and refuse to go on until you fiddle with their settings.

And while it might seem like a simple fix, it probably isn't.  I'm not sure we quite understand all of the reasons that the dwarves freeze up when trying to fire.
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Free Beer

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Re: How does the pathing/shooting bug work?
« Reply #2 on: September 05, 2009, 10:48:06 am »

Unfortunate.

Does water, magma, and/or multiple Z levels affect pathing for purposes of determining whether they can shoot?
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Elvin

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Re: How does the pathing/shooting bug work?
« Reply #3 on: September 05, 2009, 12:25:37 pm »

I * think* it's something to do with that. when they run out of ammunition, they try to use their crossbow as a hammer to clobber the offending party with. If thye canot path to the enemy, they're stuck in a pathfinding lop until either they're told to stay near their station or the enemies move off the map ( or until they died from starvation/thirst)
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Quietust

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Re: How does the pathing/shooting bug work?
« Reply #4 on: September 05, 2009, 12:50:20 pm »

For marksdwarves, it seems to be most prevalent when you set them to "chase opponents" - if you tell them to stay by their posts, they won't try to chase the enemies, but will simply revert to standard "idle on-duty" behavior and reload, then come back and shoot some more.
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Albedo

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Re: How does the pathing/shooting bug work?
« Reply #5 on: September 05, 2009, 01:56:10 pm »

A marksdwarf who is sealed up behind fortifications will still fire at an enemy.  No path between them, just line of sight.
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