I've been having issues getting my colonists to stop wasting valuable time choosing nonsensical pathways to destinations. I go out of my way to make more obvious paths for them to take, it's like they want it to be difficult.
I attached a screenshot, the red line is the path they are taking (even trudging through thick tree growth!) which cannot possibly be desirable for any logical reason. There is a nice 100% walk speed pathway laid out for them. Something odd going on here, because even without the constructed path the route they are taking has to be at least 3 times longer due to the trees.
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I have seen the same with my colonists.
Somehow the always prefer to go through trees.
normally i would say that the ai pathing is purposefully not accurate due to that being also quite heavy on processing. However the above is just plain silly....
Try to clean the dirt on the road
I made some tests, too. It happens even without mods and with terrain cleared by dev tools, more often on long distances but sometimes even on short ones. And it looks like the pawns tend to "remember" these go-rounds while they have to make a similar (but not identical) path. I mean, it's not a random thing: if the pawn have to go from point A to point B and does it by go-round, (s)he (and any other pawn) will make the same go-round when pathing from some vicinity of A to some vicinity of B.
I've been noticing this a lot, too. Even after the fixes with the Path Avoid mod and having marked off areas to not path through, my pawns have been ultra stubborn with deciding to path through trees and water (deep river water included w/ the Bridgello mod enabled) instead of avoiding those tiles & going through less cost-heavy/flat areas I had built up for the sake of sanity. It's almost getting to the point I'm literally painting preferred/strong paths all across my game maps because of how silly the vanilla pathing gets at times...
I often see my pawns path through a tree when there is open space on either side that they could easily take. But I also see them sometimes do a jog around a tree, so it's not like they never avoid them. It's odd and seems fairly random.
What is that thing on the left side of the pic, below the left most colonist? (Verna?)
Is it from a mod?
Perhaps they don't want to walk by all those ugly pieces of debris next to and on the road?
A couple of examples with the terrain cleared from plants (the red lines are paths that are obviously better than chosen by pawns)
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According to Tynan:
"It's broken in A17 due to some optimizations, we've improved it for next alpha."
From a reddit thread of the same irk.
Quote from: erdrik on June 29, 2017, 01:36:02 AM
What is that thing on the left side of the pic, below the left most colonist? (Verna?)
Is it from a mod?
Yes, that's a cleaning bot sorta like a roomba. If you're interested, search the Steam workshop for "robot" and you'll find stuff.
I built a sandstone tile road (walk speed 100) through a long stretch of wilderness from my home base to a large growing zone. The trees and soil alone probably lowered the walk speed to 87 plus whatever the trees did.
I've observed this behavior both with vanilla and with the pathavoid mod, and in both cases the colonists COMPLETELY ignore the road and insist on walking through the mud.
The road was about 100 or so tiles long.
I would like just to link this topic with this one because both speak of the same issue :
https://ludeon.com/forums/index.php?topic=32939.msg337164#msg337164
Thanks for the cross-link NeverPire.
Although my guess is that all pathfinding bug reports are likely on hold for A17 as Tynan posted on reddit a while back confirming (what many suspected) that pathfinding in A17 is pretty much borked. So in regards pathfinding, my assumption is that it'll be a case of waiting for A18 to be released (whenever that may be), and then starting anew with pathfinding bug reports. Since anything before A18 is either going to be based on a version with known pathfinding issues (A17) or too old to be relevant (<A16).
So to all pathfinding bug reporters. Many thanks for the reports for A17, and hopefully the devs won't see your reports again in A18+ ;D Although if it turns out that pathfinding isn't super awesome mega perfect in A18+ :( then please do report any obvious pathing derps you encounter in A18+.
I think you are searching in the wrong direction ...
Did you produce any beer or drugs in your colony ?
How is your drug policy in general ?
Maybe the pawns were just looking for the liquor store ..
Based on the paths they're taking, I think they already found the liquor store. :-P
That could also be the answer ...
and now they are looking for White Castle.
bump
We've improved the pathfinding in A18 a little. If you notice something clearly wrong in A18, then please report it. Minor suboptimalities are fine. Thanks.