Bots / AI path-finding / sub editor

[simsyu]

How about being able to configure the Bots and AI path-finding algorithm in the sub editor?
Since each submarine are "completely different" from one another having an AI able to deal with any "intended circumstances" seems like a highly inconsistent idea.

Instead it'll be more interesting to be able to configure all that revolve around bots from random dialogues and their frequencies to when and how to interact with the submarine.

Waypoints for example, I've talked about it a few month ago, how about forcing bots to get ride off the interaction range with items linked to a waypoint?
Which would force bots to get to this waypoint or one of the waypoints linked to this item to interact with it.
Magic! No more bots "unable to get there". You would have to forget about animations but it's a small price to pay compare to SPENDING HOURS/DAYS/MONTHS TO ACHIEVE THE SAME RESULT AFTER COUNTLESS TESTS.

You could tell me that it could be highly unbalanced but who cares? What if what you want to make is anything but a submarine intended to play this game the way it was designed to? Now you can with ease instead of taking hours/days/months to find some exploits to implement some unintended features (about half of my accumulated playing time is dedicated to those, so yea, I'm kind of reaaally tired of this same loop).

When will we be able to prevent bots to use certain items not as an order("ignore this") but by default through the sub editor?

How about editing random events that could happen onboard the sub under certain predetermined circumstances instead of using thousands of components?

And all of this are just example, imagine the possibilities.

[simsyu]

I'd also like to note that I still don't know what is the use of the "non-player team interactable" option since it seems that bots avoid it too.

[Rhapsody]

The more conventional type of sub you make, the better the waypoint system functions. In the past I struggled a lot with the system myself, but the latest sub I created only had issues with the very unconventional drone, and it took a few hours to test and isolate potential issues and implement workarounds for them. For every other compartment and floor, the existing auto-generation was sufficient.

Even if the existing features were improved, if you're designing highly unconventional subs with sloped walkways, detachable sections like drones, placing interactables out of reach from the room floor etc. there's probably no way of conforming bots to every eventuality without essentially making them teleport to the interaction area and having them levitate and noclip every time.

From my point of view the pathfinding works about as well as it needs to, it's the other AI features of bots like action prioritization which should be worked on little further.

[simsyu]

Originally posted by Rhapsody:

there's probably no way of conforming bots to every eventuality without essentially making them teleport to the interaction area and having them levitate and noclip every time.

From my point of view the pathfinding works about as well as it needs to, it's the other AI features of bots like action prioritization which should be worked on little further.

I'm not asking to review pathfinding but to make a way to prevent its flaws by using the opposite of teleportation in fantasy games: Telekinesis, interacting without grabbing or touching.
I've dealt with pathfinding issues on my sub so I'm not speaking for myself on that part but that would be convenient either way and open new possibilities without bots being restricted by physics.

[johnsir]

Originally posted by simsyu:

I'd also like to note that I still don't know what is the use of the "non-player team interactable" option since it seems that bots avoid it too.

Bots on the crew are part of the player's team. I think it means that (if applicable) other teams (such as pirates) can interact with them. I really don't see a use for this option.

[johnsir]

I have had some pretty idiotic waypoint issues before with bots not going into the sub properly from the outpost via the docking area. But honestly I just want bots to STOP griefing me by wasting all my meds.

I do have some annoying spamming bots in the chat often because they can't get to THE EXACT PIXEL of where I told them to wait at, and yeah that definitely needs some work.