Is there some way of making sure characters don't go crazy in combat?

[Racocac]

Pretty decent game overall, except for one problem that kills the game completely for me so far. Characters seem to have atrocious pathfinding and intelligence issues, and it seems very common for ranged characters that they seem to have a clear shot at the enemy, but the game decides they actually don't, so they run into a room full of monsters to get a better shot, or start running around the map because they decide that they need to run a full lap around the map to flank the enemy. (At other times, characters seem to be able to shoot through walls, but that's a much smaller problem.) Is there some way of solving this issue? Like, some function that ensures a character doesn't move to attack - i.e. it either attacks or does nothing when I issue the attack order. That'd be great. Otherwise, combat is just way too frustrating in closed spaces with lots of obstacles.

[Twistor]

Short answer, unfortunately no.

Longer one with explanation: If I remember correctly (pretty possible I don't), the ranged range is 8 tiles or so. So if you are in that range, everything is fine and you can make the shot, as long as it looks like there's a line of sight (I haven't seen too many issues with line of sight so I won't get into that).

However, if there's no clear path to the target to walk there (e.g. because allied or enemy characters are in the way), then the character will opt to walk around if possible. This usually results in effectively losing a turn or running into a very unoptimal location or even running through enemy ranks and using up all AP in the progress. I agree it's frustrating and stupid.

If it's not possible to reach the enemy to shoot or hit, I think they will not move at all.

Unfortunately, the only way to avoid this from happening is to, effectively and blandly, "keep calm and stay diligent". I.e. with melee characters, walk up to the enemy manually and then attack, and with ranged characters just make sure you are within range and preferably have a clear line of sight so that you can be sure that the attack can be done from the location where you are.

IMO this is unfortunately a blatant oversight on the subject of pathfinding. It is unlikely to change though. After a while you'll get used to it and see the problematic places that are likely to cause such jumpy behaviour, so it won't stay as frustrating forever, as long as you stay vigilant and don't let it happen.

[Bruckfast 2: the ReBruckning]

This thread might be dead - my bad...

But there could be a very simple solution: pathing for whatever you're trying to do is highlighted. This way we could see the ocational stroll into enemy lines before it happens

Edit: what I've done - moving to another characters tile swaps places and I use that in combat when Im worried my dps/tank might take a walk into middle earth

[Racocac]

That's a shame. I thought at first that this game was actually pretty good for a blind ironman run, basically playing it like a roguelike, but this pathfinding chaos (responsible for my first death) has strongly convinced me of the opposite... as has playing the game a bit further, but I digress. Unfortunately, in some situations, I do find that it is impossible to predict, even with experience, what the characters will do. Particularly the line of sight issues I mentioned (it seems impossible to tell sometimes when you have it and when you don't, but my mage being able to throw AoE spells at squares she does not appear to see is pretty common).