Bizzare behavior when running from fire, or on fire, when in combat.

Started by BoogieMan, February 12, 2019, 02:21:49 PM

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BoogieMan

I just fought the same psychic ship battle 5 times to test this out.

Anyone who was set ablaze by one of the inferno cannons, or was hit by it but didn't catch fire for long, seems to have a roughly 75% chance of fleeing directly towards the nearest enemy. They will even slowly climb over sandbags to deliberately throw themselves into danger even though there are not only far more logical directions to run, but of the 360 degrees of movement, they choose the 60 or so degrees that leads to an even worse situation. I even installed the Embrasures mod, and they will walk along the length of it out of their way just to get around it and move towards the enemy.

I can set it up like this:
Red = Enemy Areas
Yellow = Sandbags
Blue = My People
Grey = Impassable
Orange = Fire weapon impact zone
Black Lines = Path of those hit by fire

In the case of the last image
Black = Embrasures (walls holes that you can shoot through but are impassible)


Other than possibly being a bug, is there something that I am not considering that is playing a factor here?

All I know is out of my 20 or so combatants, half of them deliberately ran up out of cover to close range towards a horde of centipedes and lancers and got gunned down.


EDIT: Further testing with firefoam poppers reveals that even if the fire is put out almost instantly and they are safe, they will still continue their suicidal run towards the enemy.

[attachment deleted due to age]

togfox

They are probably making a bee line to the nearest water source. They can be on fire without an animation. Check the colonists info panel.

Canute

When someone is on fire, nearly everyone is in panic and don't do a logical desicion at first.
Maybe you should hold some fire pratice training each day, until everyone earn the trait Fire-proofed, so he do the right things after he is set on fire.

But this discussion about how pawn's should act when he is on fire is so old like Inferno cannon's exist.

From my expierence, they randomly take one of the 8 direction they can move.
Or he get set to move to a destination upto 10 tiles, do a check if that fail's he move to another random destination upto 10 tiles, until the fire is out or he pass the check.
When the check succed he calmed down, stay and put the fire out.

BoogieMan

As I said, I did the fight 5 times. They overwhelming chose to go northeast towards danger, which every single other direction was clear.

If they are indeed trying to path towards water, which is to the northeast, then it should be suppressed if going towards it is the equivalent of running face first into a blender and if they're safe due to firefoam because even when they had firefoam poppers bursting all around them and were coated in it making them safe from the fire, they were still running around crazily.

Funnily enough, being on fire is the lesser of the two problems. Running out in to the bulletstorm, scythers and traps is far worse. STAY IN COVER FFS. Or at the very least run AWAY from the enemies.

Doesn't make sense to be deliberately suicidal. Climbing over a sandbag to run at your enemy while you're on fire?

Razuhl

Making the area in front of your firing line a forbidden zone should prevent them from running into it due to the fire. When they are jumping into water they will however ignore forbidden zones and any danger.

BoogieMan

Yes this is a bump of an old post. But, this behavior still exists in the current build. They still choose a path to the "nearest" water when on fire without considering obstacles and actual walkable distance, even if the distance is comically far and there are other water sources much closer.

You can have a source of water 4 tiles away but blocked by a mountain range that they would have to travel hundreds of tiles around to actually reach and they will ignore a patch of water that is 30 walkable tiles away as a result. You shouldn't have to babysit your people do to a pathing calculation error. Surely they should consider actual travel time and look for nearer alternatives, since they can't fly and their location selection seems to assume they can.

Canute

That is the problem with the target find routine.
Similar happen for the table find, when a pawn want to eat.
Table is 2 tile away behind the wall, the the walkway path can extend the range of the looking rage for a table.
But i think this problem addressed many times so far.

BoogieMan

Quote from: Canute on June 06, 2021, 03:26:05 AM
That is the problem with the target find routine.
Similar happen for the table find, when a pawn want to eat.
Table is 2 tile away behind the wall, the the walkway path can extend the range of the looking rage for a table.
But i think this problem addressed many times so far.

What do you mean address manys time so far?

I've never know it to act differently.

Pheanox

Thanks for the report.  I'll put this on my document for the devs to review the AI behavior when on fire.  While not necessarily a bug, I will write this down for them to look at.