Which of your games have the best/worst AI pathfinding?

[ZedClampet]

It was the best of times; it was the worst of times (Sorry, I just attended a high school graduation, and we had "one of those" speeches).

The worst of times (for AI pathfinding) for me is in Atlas. You have someone from your crew follow you and if there's a one foot tall rock in the way, you have to go back and lead them around it. Big Ambitions is generally pretty good with pathfinding except for one thing (which may be fixed in tomorrow's update): customers can't find the cash registers (as in the picture below).

The best pathfinding, by far, that I've experienced is in Colony Survival. Had hundreds of NPC colonists, and you could drop mountains in front of them and they would find their way. Fill your underground workspace with water? No problem. They would swim to their workstations. They were/are truly remarkable.

So how about you? Best/worst pathfinding?

 

[Brian Boru]

RTS games probably have the biggest problem with pathfinding of all the genres—try sending 100 units or more thru a mountain pass to the enemy base

I specifically never tire of yelling at the Harvesters in the original Command and Conquer. They had a talent for finding the longest way to and from the Tiberium—and if there was a bridge en route, guaranteed 2 of 'em would get stuck trying to pass each other

Thankfully there are Steam Workshop mods to help with the Remaster.

Best I've seen in RTS is Supreme Commander—1 was good, 2 was very good.

In FPS I suppose Far Cry 5, I don't recall any problems with that.

 

[Frag Maniac]

The two that come to mind are IO Interactive's Freedom Fighters friendly AI on the good side, and Valve's Half Life 2 friendly AI on the bad side.

Freedom fighters is a 2003 third person view game set in an alternate history where Russia invades the US. The AI was the unique thing about it because you could give them 3 basic commands, Follow, Attack, and Defend. It had a charisma system where you could recruit up to 12 friendly AI. The Defend command was in particular pretty useful and well coded, because it allowed you to strategically place your AI in specific spots to prepare for tough fights. And They STAYED put once you placed them, something even today's AI often don't do.

You all know Valve and Half Life 2, so no need to explain, but what I will explain is why I chose this one for bad when there are SO many games with bad AI. Valve are quite prominent and capable devs, so I thought who better to show how sadly common bad AI is. Half Life 2's AI WILL go to the spots you direct them, they just don't stay there for more than 10 sec. Worse yet, they keep moving around when traversing from one battle area to another, or even in the heat of a battle, which often has them getting in your way. I still love HL2 to this day, just not it's friendly AI.

 

[mainer]

I can't think of a game that had the "best" pathfinding, because if the pathfinding is good, I just don't notice it or think about it. In games played this year, I don't remember any pathfinding issues in Solasta with my characters or enemies (NPCs are basically static). I also don't remember any issues pathfinding issues in Witcher 3 with enemies, or NPCs which move around all over the place without getting "stuck", so those games would be among the best.

Games that I've played that have bad or erratic pathfinding (off the top of my head):

-The old Infinity Engine games, like the Baldur's Gate & Icewind Dale games. Pathfinding wasn't terrible, but there were times when you hit "Pause" (Real Time with Pause) to move your party's characters, and if their paths happened to cross each other, they'd continue to "bump, bump, bump" into each other until they eventually went where they were supposed to go. Funny at times, but during combat it could get you killed.

-Mass Effect 1, not so much during combat, but just general movement in exploration, especially on the Citadel. My character would be walking around with 2 companions, and all of a sudden I'd notice that I only had one companion. I'd retrace my steps to discover one of them was "stuck" on a group of NPCs (NPCs being static). The only way to "unstick" them was to was back so they'd reorient themselves, or travel far enough away that they teleported to you.

-Fallout 4 had some pathfinding issues, mostly with settlers if you got into the settlement building aspect of the game. This might be partially and AI issue as pathfinding, but I think they're both interlinked. Almost all of those issues could be corrected with mods, but the base game was highly erratic pathfinding/AI.

 

[Zloth]

X4 has wonderful and terrible pathfinding. It's wonderfully good at finding the shortest path around the universe, even when you give ships special rules about what sectors they can and can't visit. However, if a ship gets threatened and decides to flee... oh dear. They seem pretty good about not fleeing directly toward the thing that threatens them, but that's all they consider. Nevermind that gate that's right there. Nevermind that you're escaping the one pirate ship by flying directly at a Xenon fleet. Just pick an angle and go! <facepalm>

Other than that, though, pathfinding has been really good in the games I've been playing the past few years.

Edit: And, a day later, one of my small freighters gets threatened and makes a bee-line for a superhighway, exactly as it should. But I've seen them be stupid! Iswear!!

 

[galonson]

The two that come to mind are IO Interactive's Freedom Fighters friendly AI on the good side, and Valve's Half Life 2 friendly AI on the bad side.

Freedom fighters is a 2003 third person view game set in an alternate history where Russia invades the US. The AI was the unique thing about it because you could give them 3 basic commands, Follow, Attack, and Defend. It had a charisma system where you could recruit up to 12 friendly AI. The Defend command was in particular pretty useful and well coded, because it allowed you to strategically place your AI in specific spots to prepare for tough fights. And They STAYED put once you placed them, something even today's AI often don't do.

You all know Valve and Half Life 2, so no need to explain, but what I will explain is why I chose this one for bad when there are SO many games with bad AI. Valve are quite prominent and capable devs, so I thought who better to show how sadly common bad AI is. Half Life 2's AI WILL go to the spots you direct them, they just don't stay there for more than 10 sec. Worse yet, they keep moving around even when traversing from one battle area to another, or even in the heat of a battle, which often has them getting in your way. I still love HL2 to this day, just not it's friendly AI.

In the world of gaming, we often come across both exceptional and flawed AI systems. It's fascinating how IO Interactive's Freedom Fighters managed to captivate us with its well-coded and reliable friendly AI, creating a truly immersive experience. On the other hand, Valve's Half Life 2, although a beloved game, reminds us that even talented developers struggle with AI pitfalls. Let's appreciate the moments of brilliance and continue to hope for even better AI in the future.

 

[Zloth]

Let's appreciate the moments of brilliance and continue to hope for even better AI in the future.

Yyyyeeaah, about that....

 

[Slasken]

Cities Skylines has the worst path finding of the games I play.

 

[Pifanjr]

I remember Knights and Merchants being mentioned as an example of the worst pathfinding in video games. I sadly can't find a video about it any more, but I think it took more than 5 minutes just to move some troops past some houses, because they kept getting in each other's way.