Can't make my routes work!

[CrapShoot]

Ahh, ok. I think I understand whats happening here. If I read correctly, you have two seperate actions at the door (one alt_plant) and are defining a single route for both actions.

The bots will only try and get to the action number defined in the route. Linking them doesn't have any effect on the route system as far as I know.

You may have to define another route for the action (the alt_plant) on the outside of the door. I'm not sure how this will work though in terms of the initial goal selection that they have. At best, it would be a 50 / 50 split in terms of wich side they planted on.

EDIT: I'm not 100% sure what math is used to determine 'shortest path'. Whether it's time, distance, or number of nodes. I'm guessing it's either number of nodes or distance, but maybe Mal can clarify.

[Maleficus]

Originally Posted by CrapShoot

EDIT: I'm not 100% sure what math is used to determine 'shortest path'. Whether it's time, distance, or number of nodes. I'm guessing it's either number of nodes or distance, but maybe Mal can clarify.

Its distance. BTW: Crapshoot is correct about needing to have setup the route for each of the alt plants you have. If linked correctly, they will be treated as two different means to the same end, and you will have to create 2 route nodes. You can have 2 or more route nodes in the same area, and the bots will only pay attention to the one that points to the action they want to accomplish.

[Maleficus]

Originally Posted by Denny

I thought alt roams can't be turned off once activated?

They are treated like any other action, and can be turned off/on at will. Your thinking of the fact that ONCE activated, they wont turn "off" unless you do so thru the script system.

[the bindlestiff]

Originally Posted by Maleficus

Its distance. BTW: Crapshoot is correct about needing to have setup the route for each of the alt plants you have. If linked correctly, they will be treated as two different means to the same end, and you will have to create 2 route nodes. You can have 2 or more route nodes in the same area, and the bots will only pay attention to the one that points to the action they want to accomplish.

I have the inside/outside the door dynamite alt_plant actions linked to each other. The "outside" action is linked to the "inside," and the "inside" action is linked to the "outside."

My dynamite route node is pointed to the "outside" door action, and I have two alt roam actions linked to the route node specifying two paths to take, one to outside the door and the other to inside the door. Once I fixed my path node error (that I confessed to earlier in this thread), it worked fine. Each path gets selected about 50 % of the time, as you would expect.

I also tried setting up two route nodes, with one pointing to the outside door action and the other to the inside door action, each with an alt roam for the corresponding destination. This works also.

So maybe it isn't necessary to have two separate route nodes for a double-plant linked dynamite objective. Has anyone else encountered this situation?

Denny: in Depot, I DID get the action numbers confused with the action type when I studied the waypointing. I apologize, kind sir!

[Denny]

Originally Posted by the bindlestiff

Denny: in Depot, I DID get the action numbers confused with the action type when I studied the waypointing. I apologize, kind sir!

It happoens, don't worry bout it.

[the bindlestiff]

Oooh, these routes! Here's another one that's causing me trouble:

I have a route node situated at the document steal point. It has three different paths the bots can take to escape -- two are very dangerous (the shorter ones, of course) and a third one that's longer but safer. Using the alt-roam placing criteria discussed earlier in this thread, I had no trouble getting the two short paths to work properly with the route node. But the long route is giving me problems.

Think of an equilateral triangle with the Start at one vertex, the Finish at another, and the Alt Roam at the third. The route I want the bot to take is twice the distance to the Finish as the short route. What should happen is that the bot calculates the shortest distance to the Alt Roam, goes there, then chooses the shortest path to the Finish and goes there.

What actually happens is that the bot goes directly to the Finish, passes it, goes to the Alt Roam, then turns around and goes back to the Finish. This is an indication that the Alt Roam is too close to the Finish. But I have to move it to very near the Start before the behavior changes. Then the bot will run through the door to the Alt Roam and turn around and take the short way to the Finish (as it should). There is no intermediate point where the bot will travel from Start-to-AltRoam-to-Finish

If I disconnect some node connections to force the bot to take the long route, it does so without difficulties. This longer route goes though the notorious door that has by now been dynamited. The bot also has to climb a long ladder. I measured four seconds as the time for me to climb the ladder. This is on the far side of the 3.5 second rule, so I added a node in the middle of the ladder in case that might be confusing the bot calculations. But it didn't change anything.

I can see nothing unusual about the route. Other bots, not carrying stolen documents, travel it without difficulty, allied or axis. There is a spot where I had to use some one-way paths to get around some boxes. I made those two-way but it didn't affect the bots behavior, either.

Sorry to have to bring up so many problems. I spend a lot of time trying to figure them out before asking for help. And I know that it's difficult to try to trouble-shoot a problem by e-mail -- it's much better to be there where you can point at somthing and say "ah haa!"

Thanks for your patience!

[CrapShoot]

Originally Posted by the bindlestiff

I have the inside/outside the door dynamite alt_plant actions linked to each other. The "outside" action is linked to the "inside," and the "inside" action is linked to the "outside."

My dynamite route node is pointed to the "outside" door action, and I have two alt roam actions linked to the route node specifying two paths to take, one to outside the door and the other to inside the door. Once I fixed my path node error (that I confessed to earlier in this thread), it worked fine. Each path gets selected about 50 % of the time, as you would expect.

So maybe it isn't necessary to have two separate route nodes for a double-plant linked dynamite objective. Has anyone else encountered this situation?

You may be right, it may not be necessary to have the routes for this scenario. Try disabling the routes all together and I bet you still get the 50% now that the pathing issue has been solved.

[the bindlestiff]

Originally Posted by CrapShoot

You may be right, it may not be necessary to have the routes for this scenario. Try disabling the routes all together and I bet you still get the 50% now that the pathing issue has been solved.

You were right! I disabled the dynamite route node and unleashed a small army of engineer bots on the map to get some data on the usage each path would get. Averaged out at about 50% like you predicted.

[Maleficus]

Funny how simple the answers can be to seemingly complex problems.

Can't wait to see the results for zion!



Cheers!