Tolmos

Sometimes I wonder if they even CAN fix it, or if AI programming just isn't something they are proficient in. The pathfinding in Arma II is still fugly even years later, and this brand new game with a brand new engine is no better. On top of that, I can find posts about the pathfinding in this game all the way back to the first beta. At this point, one can assume if they could fix it they would have. Perhaps they might do well to outsource a little? Maybe contract someone with AI expertise to assist the dev team in finding out whats wrong with the design so they can get it fixed.

I heard they plan to look into how well the game is going and maybe give us multiplayer if it goes really well. I'd love that- LAN play alone would make me thrilled. Having a third or fourth opponent would also make my day. Add a little more strategy while also stopping the constant give and take between the computer and yourself.

I have not experienced that yet. There's definitely some form of conflict going on with your machine and the game. If you do get a Dev reply, you might want to drop some dxdiag information for him either here or in a personal message. The game doesn't like something about your machine...

Will there be any sort of AI/programming capabilities with this, or more of a drag and drop GUI with a focus on ease of use? I'd definitely love to get a shot at writing some scripts for this game if the modding tool allows it.

I wouldn't think of it as a letdown. In some games, like the X Series and Elder Scrolls, later mods built by the more experienced community members can be equivalent to and sometimes a HIGHER production quality than what is found in the original game. There are many times where I actually hope the devs don't bother to make a change so the modding community can take a whack at it- thus giving an amazing quality mod and also freeing the devs to focus on more bug fixes and stability issues. Depending on what the modding kit looks like, I definitely plan to take a shot at it when it comes out. I could see mods for this game being amazing... though my artistic talent stops short of stick figures these days, so I'll be sticking with the programming aspect of modding (if its possible in the kit) =D

This is one of those things that I can't see being added any time soon in an official capacity, but definitely popping up once the mod system is in place. I can tell you this- my favorite game is X3:Reunion/Terran Conflict... but only when it's modded. What the game is at release and what it is 1 year from release? Completely different. If the modding system these guys put out is as flexible as some other games, what the game is today will be only the tip of the iceberg that it will become this time in 2013. >_>

Of course, I may have jumped the gun on this question. I just noticed someone on Steam's forums mention that patch 1.02 was announced on the official site as being released, with the additional note of "Various Walrus AI improvements". It doesn't appear to have reached steam yet, so I was curious if anyone here may have tried it and did it make much of a difference? Understandable. I'm not expecting they could fix it immediately, but I'm mostly just looking for a forum post of reassurance from one of the devs or mods saying they at least recognize the issue. I would normally assume that is a given, but this is an issue that seems to have been mentioned several hundred times on the beta forums many weeks before this, so I had some small worry that maybe the devs were ok with where with the current pathfinding is at and don't have it high on the list of fix priorities.

It also makes the game feel a little more alive. I tried to get my gf into my favorite game series, the X series (X2, X3: Reunion, X3:Terran Conflict). She started to, at first... but eventually lost interest. When I asked her what killed it for her, she said it was because the universe just didn't feel alive at all. All she ever saw, besides little communication windows on the top left, were ships. No people, no walking around on the ships- as far as she was concerned it was a bunch of little lifeless space-boats putting around and doing lifeless space-boat stuff. No immersion whatsoever. I really wouldn't have thought about it if not for the opening FPS scenes. I didn't hate them quite as much as everyone else, but when I actually walked onboard the ship? I immediately thought "This is the game for me". I could actually explore the inside of the ship, see the different rooms and just generally move from place to place within it. So when I took command of it, the very first thing I did was try to find out how to get back there, so I could walk around the ship while it was floating around on the water and doing stuff. Unfortunately, I found it wasn't possible. While not game breaking or hurting my overall image of the game, I do have to say it was definitely more than a little disappointing.

While I have to say that the only thing I actually care about is the walrus pathfinding/general intelligence, if they added this little piece of fluff it would make such a huge difference to me I can't even begin to describe. Those two changes alone would easily turn this into my hands down favorite game. I know it seems silly, but the immersion of being able to just chill out and walk around your carrier while other things are going on (namely waiting for production and supplies) would be unreal. I can't think of any other game out, atm, that lets you do that besides Mass Effect (which hardly compares but because you have a ship and can tell it where to go, it deserves mention) and that star trek MMO that is out.

So I got the game the moment it released, and I have to say that mechanics wise I am loving it. However, I had to shelf the game temporarily until a fix for the unit pathfinding came out. The frustration of losing units in situations where it was really unnecessary (particularly because my walruses were out doing donuts in a field, making sweet love to rocks or headbutting trees) started to turn me off from the game, and I wanted to take a step back as to not get the wrong first impressions. The other bugs seem minor enough that they really don't bother me at all- it's just the pathfinding that is pretty game breaking for me. I have to rely on my AI units so much that I need to know they'll actually do more than just sacrifice my walruses to video game gods without even trying to help. I've seen a lot of player chatter here and on steam about it, but I haven't noticed an official response of "Yea, we see this and we're gonna take a look at whats up", so I wanted to pop here and find out if anyone else had. It would definitely make me feel a lot better knowing a fix is in the works, cause I could easily see this being my favorite game once it works properly!