Why do bots want to go outside the sub?

[Buggy Boy]

Surely there's nothing out there to repair, unless it's the outer hull but I've never known them to bother before.

[FourGreenFields]

Haven't seen that happen yet. Any specific sub it happens with?

[Buggy Boy]

It's my scratch-built sub. As far as I'm aware there are no things outside repairable / breakable.

[Greb]

Your waypoints are set up nicely, right? I've never seen a bot ever leave the submarine before, I think you can ask them to follow you and they will, but on their own? I've never seen that.

Using any legacy objects as decoration that might be getting destroyed by the water? Might help to mark them as indestructable just to be safe, I dunno.

[Buggy Boy]

I wonder if there's something they're having trouble getting to inside the sub, so they try going via an airlock. I'll have to check destructible items around that area, maybe I just need to regenerate waypoints again (I usually fine-tune them so it's a bit of a pain if I do need to regenerate them).

[Cr1t1cal]

I experienced same issue on my own made submarine. I may assume it's the airlock hatches which are counted as regular exit or something

[Buggy Boy]

Interestingly (and also annoyingly) the bots didn't get stuck headbutting a wall in the airlock this time, but they were unable to open the other airlock by pressing the custom door button (which had been working fine with bots yesterday). This was during a private hosted server with just me playing with the bots, and also with public multiplayer... the bots had suits on because the sub had been flooded, they were trying to access another part of the sub beyond the airlock but once inside the airlock and both doors closed, they couldn't open them and thus suffocated. I still don't know what mechanism the bots use to press a door button, if there's a choice then which button do they choose to press?

[Reece Draygan]

Help with odd bot behaviour - insists on leaving the sub!

I have created my own submarine and it works well, except I have encountered a random issue with the bots. After being attacked, any bots assigned to repair mechanical devices decide to put on a diving suit and then go to leave the submarine via the airlock - except they don't. They open the hatch, go down the ladder and then go back up the ladder into the airlock, take off the suit - rinse and repeat in an endless cycle.

Can anyone offer a possible explanation as to why my mechanic bots periodically insist on leaving the submarine via the airlock to go fix and/or repair a mechanical device? They do not do it for repairing leaks, only for mechanical device repairs - but I have nothing outside of the submarine that would require repair and I have double checked that all mechanical devices can be reached from inside the submarine with way points... no device shows as broken down either.

It has me stumped. Ideas?

[Greb]

My bots were getting stuck standing underneath the airlock to leave the sub, because they wanted to repair a piece of partially damaged hull inside the airlock itself, but for some reason they wouldn't use the hatch to enter the airlock despite having access, and the waypoints being set up to allow them to recognise the door.

I changed it from a custom hatch to a regular hatch with buttons and hope that it has fixed their behaviour, but I had to forbid the use of the button on the custom hatch so they wouldn't just stand there forever ignoring everything else, lol.

I guess maybe the AI has changed in the last update?

Ah now I'm getting the issue too. They want to leave the sub to repair something, but there doesn't seem to be anything out there to be repaired...? I thought it might have been the Sonar Transducer but nope. I have to forbid the doors to stop them drowning us all and also to make them continue to do their other jobs. Definitely frustrating lol.

Got a snap of them in (in)action for what it's worth:

https://steamuserimages-a.akamaihd.net/ugc/1688275651003937899/C0275AE3EFE09868C83327EAF5BD3832502F7897/

[Reece Draygan]

This is exactly what is happening to me sometimes - see my other post earlier today.

[The Flaming Pike]

Originally posted by 2.FJgReece Draygan:

This is exactly what is happening to me sometimes - see my other post earlier today.

Hi, I took the liberty of merging your thread with this one since it's about the same issue. I have also moved this to "Help & Technical Support".

As a sub builder myself, I would believe this is a faulty waypoint issue. Sometimes the subs we create aren't exactly like the vanilla submarines made by the developers and since they design their AI according to their own sub configurations, it's possible that they might not behave as they should with community-created subs. That's why, when making your own sub, you should be careful when making things that are different from the vanilla subs. The more different it looks from a vanilla sub like the Typhon or Dugong, the bigger the chances are that the bots will behave erratically.

I would first try resetting the waypoints and then focus on the areas that are problematic. Sometimes, doors or hatches in workshop subs are too close to another or are located in areas with odd designs. In other cases, users may have reduced their size or cramed a lot of things in a specific area, which may confuse the bots.

Make sure your waypoints that lead outside of the sub are placed correctly. Remember that "waypoints dots" also rely on the links that tie them to other dots. If you incorrectly link waypoints, this will confuse the AI. I've had issues in the past with bots seemingly not entirely understanding that there was a wall somewhere in one of my subs and I corrected this issue by simply moving the waypoint dots a bit on both sides of the wall. There are key waypoints that have a small icon related to doors; make sure they are properly placed, as this may very well be the cause of your issue.

[Reece Draygan]

Thanks for the assistance - I'll pour over the way points again - its not game breaking as it only seems to happen at certain times - though what they are trying to actually fix is unclear as nothing is actually broken at the time but thats the task they are trying to complete. All very odd

[Buggy Boy]

I've regenerated waypoints several times on my custom-built sub, it's frustrating because during testing the bots might react fine to the custom doors and hatches, but randomly later on either on a mission or in the sub editor they'll have problems despite nothing having changed with those doors. I think something that should fix this would be to be able to tell the AI specifically which button they need to press for what purpose (mostly when they want to get from point A to point B and the doors are in the way), that should prevent any AI confusion. I will have to investigate the character editor, see what possibilities there are for AI customisation!

As a stop-gap until something better comes along, I've just removed the route through the airlock they were getting stuck in so they shouldn't even try to go there. One thing they're always saying is that they can't reach somewhere in Airlock B, my waypoints are set nicely (perhaps I need to fiddle with them a bit more) and they do eventually seem to get to where they need to so I'm not sure what's going on there, by the time I go and find them they've scurried off.

Earlier today my AI crewman kept complaining that he couldn't get to anywhere outside of the room he was in, the internal hatch was working fine and I was able to move in and out without any trouble, not sure why his AI seemed to stall.

[Reece Draygan]

I think it has something to do with repairing the hatch - but even when i destroyed it with a plasma cutter and then repaired it to 100% the bots still do it. Only way to stop them doing it is to remember at each outpost to repair all systems at the sub upgrader - problem then goes away.
The other work around is to suspend the task of mechanical/system repair when they say "i need a diving suit". You can periodically reactivate it and they will repair other systems first and then you can resuspend the task when they start doing it again.

[The Flaming Pike]

Originally posted by 2.FJgReece Draygan:

Thanks for the assistance - I'll pour over the way points again - its not game breaking as it only seems to happen at certain times - though what they are trying to actually fix is unclear as nothing is actually broken at the time but thats the task they are trying to complete. All very odd

No problem, but keep in mind I'm not a dev, just a regular veteran player who can destroy your entire Barotrauma forum existence if you rub me the wrong way! . Jokes aside, that means I could very well be wrong and it could be a real glitch. We haven't seen your sub. It would be good for you all to share your subs so we could try them out and maybe see things you haven't seen.

[Greb]

My sub is on the workshop if you want to have a look, it's called the Bittergloom. Developers themselves would definitely be able to get to the bottom of it. The bots didn't seem to get stuck before, but I had a lot of problems with the sub itself and kept returning it to the drawing board, but the only issue with bots I had before uploading it was discovering they don't like using custom build stairs using platforms, which was understandable.

Me and some friends had ran the campaign a few times (constantly restarting due to problems with my sub, as mentioned) and we never saw the bots get stuck like they do, standing below the upper airlock in a constant repair task they can't complete. That's a recent thing, I don't want to say it happened after the latest update because I can't say for sure if that's the case.

The waypoints seem fine to me. They're pretty much the same as they've always been almost since the sub was first made, too. They've been regenerated a bunch of times, which has problems of its own but I fix them every time manually and it looks good, but I could be overlooking something. Sometimes the airlock door waypoints turn blue? But then go back to green when I reload the sub.

It's like they want to leave the submarine but can't. The damaged hatch sounds like a potential culprit though, aliens bashing into it or something might be making them confused, not sure. I've already set most of the outer items to be invulnerable but I didn't consider the hatches and doors.

I don't know how to 100% reproduce the problem, it just seems to happen as you go about your typical campaign playthrough. All of a sudden you'll notice your mechanic / electrician bots permanently undertaking a repair task, standing near the airlock, sometimes climbing the ladder and dropping back down. It wouldn't be much of a problem worth mentioning really, except they tend to let the submarine decay around them, which can be bad if you're off the submarine on a diving mission, lol.

Anyway though, would love to know what's causing it and what I could do to potentially fix it on my end, if it's not a bug or anything anyway. Thanks for looking into it too, if you choose to.