Checking Walkable Areas

[Karzama]

Hi

I have a set of units in my map that evolve into better units by turning into a pod, after a short time the new unit comes out, if you kill the pod before the timer then the larger enemy doesn't spawn. Works fine.

However I just had a problem with it as the 2nd unit in the chain is a flying unit, while the rest are land units. Basically it flew over a cliff and turned into a pod at the same time, putting the new unit on the cliff unable to move.

I'm aware that I can check if the ground beneath them is ground pathable but I'm wondering if there are any good ways of checking the area around them, as some cliffs may have partially walkable edges.

Thoughts?

 

[WaterKnight]

You may write an algorithm similar to the fill tool in drawing applications to connect the playable area or count the cells you can reach. That may get very inperformant depending on the iterations and resolution.

 

[Karzama]

Hmm, would it work if I put pathing blockers on all those parts instead? (May be an easier way to do it)

 

[WaterKnight]

You said you had ways to check if the pathing is blocked, so ofc stitching the holes, you would not see them as part of the playable area anymore. The default pathing blockers are destructables though, which do not affect the terrain pathing, in case you were referring to that. You can instead use doodads or modify the world pathing map directly or pick another method for checking like placing an item on the spot and seeing where it ends up. That may be influenced by more than terrain pathing though.

Also I would not necessarily call it easier putting thousands of blockers, paying attention nowhere to leave a gap and having to adjust it each time you change the map layout.

 

[Zwiebelchen]

Not sure if I understood the problem, but why don't you just use a snippet that calculates the closest valid pathable point by placing a dummy item, then move the unit there once it spawns?

 

[Karzama]

Okay I've done the item thing and have pathing blockers on certain cliffs to stop the item from being placed there. And it works! Thanks guys!

 

[WaterKnight]

@Zwiebelchen: OP has pathing-free holes in the areas that are supposed to be non-walkable. So the unit could still be trapped in that nearest "valid" spot.

 

[Zwiebelchen]

@Zwiebelchen: OP has pathing-free holes in the areas that are supposed to be non-walkable. So the unit could still be trapped in that nearest "valid" spot.

Ah, I see. That's actually a very common problem (I actually have the same issue with jump spells in Gaias, as I only use line-type pathing blockers for performance reasons, then remove them ingame and write them into the pathing map).

Someone really needs to create a lightweight fill-type script that sets the pathing flag for the regions that aren't accessable from defined points.

I mean, there is a native that allows turning the pathing of a cell off. We just have to make this library reality...
Off to the lab section we go!

 

[WaterKnight]

You can do this @compiletime or actually these gaps should be small enough that you can fill-investigate at landing, you may also cache the thereby identified dead zones via region. Static terrain is not too serious business.