Pathfinding & path-blocking...AI issues?

I noticed that if you block all possible paths the aliens will just go between your towers. Which is fine and sensible if they have no route. However, on map 17 ("turnaround" or "turnabout") my strategic pathblocking can get quite elaborate and once a certain amount of towers are placed the aliens will start taking the quickest path possible by slipping between my buildings and entirely ruining any path I have built. So, i figure it is an AI pathfinding bug or limitation. It seems based on the number of towers because i could place a tower that isn't even connected to another tower (8 spaces free around it) and it could still trigger the AI to skip the designed path for no reason. So is pathblocking not absolute? Wouldn't it be better to just make blocking their routes to and from the cores illegal (like you are prevented from placing the final tower that would block it)? What are the rules then, cause I assume path blocking is a strategy you are supposed to use...?

[jeff]

First off - sorry for the delay in replying.





Second, this is the first I've heard of where the pathfinding didn't react to the actual situation on the grid.* Pathfinding is completely dynamic and responds to what is being shown, so I'm going to guess that the behavior you are seeing is most likely due to a different tower that was placed rather than the one with empty squares all around it.





Can you send a screenshot of the pathfinding issue you are seeing and perhaps draw on it to show what was happening, and what changed once you placed the tower you placed?





Remember (and you likely know this, but I'll reiterate) that diagonal towers do block a path.* Also, verify that when you see area around the tower that you are looking at pathable full squares for the aliens to walk on and not some small amount of edge skirting that looks like they might be able to walk on it.





Hope that helps.* Looking forward to seeing your image.





Jeff