Feedback: AI movement and pathing could use a serious review

[hospitaller]

I've had starmates get hard stuck (ie, I had to come back and bump them) on 10x10 foot pieces of metal sticking up in the middle of the desert, and enemy mechs and tanks work themselves up against cliff faces and debris cul-de-sacs and never move again. Happens at least 3 times a mission. Combat movement is similarly weird, with stars given attack orders literally attempting to climb the highest bit of closeish terrain when told attack a flying unit, and group hugging ground units then doing an odd, "back up, turn in place, walk forward again" hokey pokey. And god help you if you fight in a confined space, the enemy and friendly AI just mosh pit together and start spraying at 2 foot range. Rocks fall, everyone dies.

The jankey combat movement thing I'm kind of used to from Mercenaries (maybe I need to start turning off melee weapons groups again on AI mechs, though the "climb a cliff, I want to hit that Sokol with my fist" behavior is hilarious), but the 3-per-team incidences per mission of things getting hard stuck is definitely worse than it was in Mercs. Something in the "I can't move" behavior is getting confused and giving up.

Edit: yes, I know if you give your star long range weapons and 'form on me' orders then stop in place a long way from the enemy, your star will in fact engage with long range fire and not charge in and start the hokey pokey. Just giving some feedback on what happens if you DO end up in a brawl (and the getting stuck thing is universal.)

[Si Cwan]

they need more orders, they're always stuck on "form on me" need some form of "scatter and attack" or 'patrol this area' I often find they get in front of me when i'm trying to zoom in and fire... can't say how many times i've had to restart cause one of them walked in front of me and took 2 guass', and 40 rockets to the back and blew up. its sad to see that kind of lack luster AI in a game in 2024