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BOFF pathing

I just played Storm Clouds Gather. As direct feedback I have to say your AI pathing is, honestly, atrocious. The BOFFs kept getting stuck in the ore area and when I would use commanded pathing they usually couldn't find a solution. I shows very badly on the operation. If I were administration, I would go out and find a very experienced pathing expert who can work with what you have as well as discuss what issues forward map designs are likely to create. As it is you still have not developed an effective way to address these issues. It is the main thing that makes me pause when I consider playing STO and helps me to play other games.

As feedback on the Gamma Quadrant mission set, wonderful story line and very well executed. Here I recommend buying dinner for those involved in the development of it. Very, very engaging and It is almost a shame its only six episodes.

Comments

  • jaadorjaador Member Posts: 52 Arc User
    edited June 2018
    It seems like NPC pathing on all the new maps is in a rough state. They can't seem to maneuver through doors easily and just end up stuck in rooms. DS9 is filled with veritable armies of trapped NPCs milling back and forth, unable to escape. VIL mission maps trap one or two boffs in each room you go to. By the time I got to a point where I could fight anything in Doomed to Repeat, I didn't have a boff to my name and only one story NPC for assistance since they occasionally just respawn next to you if they get too far away.

    I ain't here to sling insults or hyperbole so much as draw attention to the fact and hope it gets fixed ASAP, because everything else feels really well done.
  • spiritbornspiritborn Member Posts: 4,248 Arc User
    jaador wrote: »
    It seems like NPC pathing on all the new maps is in a rough state. They can't seem to maneuver through doors easily and just end up stuck in rooms. DS9 is filled with veritable armies of trapped NPCs milling back and forth, unable to escape. VIL mission maps trap one or two boffs in each room you go to. By the time I got to a point where I could fight anything in Doomed to Repeat, I didn't have a boff to my name and only one story NPC for assistance since they occasionally just respawn next to you if they get too far away.

    I ain't here to sling insults or hyperbole so much as draw attention to the fact and hope it gets fixed ASAP, because everything else feels really well done.

    It doesn't help that STO pathing is rather primitive to begin with but yeah it seems that pathing on those maps needs a bit of work. Nothing game breaking (I beat the whole gamma storyline in one sitting) but certainly in need a bit more polish.
  • catswithshoescatswithshoes Member Posts: 7 Arc User
    At least they are consistently bad about this? I'm beyond the last shreds of hope that this will ever be fixed when it is coming included as a feature in new content. This is a major reason no one really gives a damn about the ground combat, it's something you suffer through and death-drag yourself through in the storyline and then try to ignore after.. which is too bad because some of the content which does not rely on your NPCs to be able to navigate a straight path can be enjoyable. Nothing will continue to be done about this issue, Lifetime member forever here.. it has never been fixed and they don't care.
  • gradiigradii Member Posts: 2,824 Arc User
    Ground combat is best combat- at least outside the buggy story missions, like in queues.

    "He shall be my finest warrior, this generic man who was forced upon me.
    Like a badass I shall make him look, and in the furnace of war I shall forge him.
    he shall be of iron will and steely sinew.
    In great armour I shall clad him and with the mightiest weapons he shall be armed.
    He will be untouched by plague or disease; no sickness shall blight him.
    He shall have such tactics, strategies and machines that no foe will best him in battle.
    He is my answer to cryptic logic, he is the Defender of my Romulan Crew.
    He is Tovan Khev... and he shall know no fear."
  • galacticgoogalacticgoo Member Posts: 61 Arc User
    Storm Clouds Gather. How did the pathing in this episode get past QA? Or, why is management not listening to QA when they say it needs more work?

    I love STO. I have 49 characters now. Trying to run all them through this mission is insane. This morning I get up to run another character through this mission. Same thing as always, spend 15 minutes trying to get my boffs to the top level. Finally get to the last top level with all 4 Boffs (I know, baby noodle smiled down on me). Just gotta get across the bridge for the final ground battle. Of course, one boff decides to do a suicide dive off the edge. Do the battle anyway, finally kill all the bad guys, except one. And of course, Mr Bad guy somehow gets stuck in the wall/crate. He can shoot me, I can't shoot him. Can't complete the mission unless he dies. None of the boffs can target him. Normally, beaming up to the ship and beam right back will fix this. Nope, guess what? You get to start at the very beginning of the mission and you just wasted 15 minutes of your life. Thanks.

    I'm really angry right now.
  • jelly0jelly0 Member Posts: 560 Arc User
    Facility 4028 I NEVER had a problem with before but now nobody wants to walk through a door, away team or the founder.
  • arionisaarionisa Member Posts: 1,421 Arc User
    Facility 4028 has had buggy pathing for years now, I've posted the work around (that works for me) a few times.

    I have yet to find anything that actually works reliably in the Gamma Quad missions. Sometimes they all follow, sometimes none of them follow, and when they don't follow nothing I have tried gets them to go where I want them. I finally quit even trying, I just go, if they follow, great, if not I run it solo and if when I eventually die, they respawn right there with me. Takes a heck of a lot less time to die and respawn that it does to attempt to overcome the pathing bug feature.
    LTS and loving it.
    Ariotex.png
  • dracounguisdracounguis Member Posts: 5,358 Arc User
    Yeah takes longer to get your boffs along the path than to kill the Hur'q. I feel like I need this for them...
    https://youtu.be/M3tSx5cYuNY
  • postagepaidpostagepaid Member Posts: 2,899 Arc User
    I've never yet managed to complete a runthrough of survivor without at least half the boff team failing to go through the gateway at the top of the stairs right at the start of the ground map.

    Storm cloud gathers is rapidly becoming another of those skip it missions for me as the rewards are mediocre for such a tedious time spent on the ground map doing laps of the tiny ds9, even if you get to chuckle at sompek in his broom closet, and the laborious trek through the ore processing where for no damn reason the boffs only move to designated points if they're in combat but even then only if they feel like it.

    That mission also seems to have reinstated the boffs love of jumping about and leaping off high places that plagued missions like the borg arc in the run up to the TRIBBLE undine fight.
  • dracounguisdracounguis Member Posts: 5,358 Arc User
    Remember the Fire Caves of Bajor? My doffs would always jump into the flaming pits of doom. I don't think that mission is around anymore? If not; Cryptic probably got rid of it due to pathing issues. ;)
  • fun4ever#6757 fun4ever Member Posts: 45 Arc User
    Quick reloq will bring all boff to ur current location, no matter where they stuck.

    Im just using /gotocharacterselect bind on top floor (before final battle) in Storm Clouds...
  • postagepaidpostagepaid Member Posts: 2,899 Arc User
    I use that keybind to avoid the lander they glued into the esc menu for no good reason, cryptic are wise to this and reset the bind on a weekly basis.

    You do still have to coax them through that final tube otherwise they stand and gyrate against the fences. The bugs won't move and getting line of sight is very hit & miss.

    The pathing issues is apparently something they know about and yet the one who designed the interior map for that mission didn't bother to account for it. Accuracy to the show is an aesthetic and when it directly impacts gameplay then it's been taken too far.
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