I think I have encountered a small bug with the HG. Rather than walking through the hole he chose to attack the wall next to it, seemed very strange so I took some screens. As you can see the HG is a little bit far behind since he has been shooting at the wall, even though there already is a pathway right next to it. Its destroyed and he continues doing his thang.
They have done that for some time. I was expecting that would be fixed in this release but no. Ok, more hoping than expecting. I've learned not to expect.
It's probably faster for him to shoot that wall piece (which is already at low HP) then to walk around
Mine do that as well. The bombers ignore the walls and run for the for the holes, while the HGs ignore the holes and and shoot the wall next to it.
Here's another, where multiple HGs pick at a wall with an opening right beside them. And same thing, there is no doubt it was quicker to walk, and yes my screen capture was a bit late as well. This has happened many times to me.
LOL at that pic! yea that is exactly what happens! Instead of just walking that extra tile they choose to fire at the walls next to it, a really unintelligent behavior lol. Thanks for sharing @Becker Redbeard, glad I'm not the only one
It's only my thoughts on what I've seen.. but I have found that if the HG's see a target straight ahead an/or to the left (for example) and the hole in the wall is to the right (even by one square); as its not in the direction of travel, they will punch a hole in the line they need to take to their target..
Several times I have encountered this scenario as well: First the HG fires at at target while walking forwards (at its longest range only) then if it reaches a wall while walking forward, he starts firing at the wall instead. Again, this only happens at his furthest capacity range. Basically it's like first he has range 6, then suddenly he has range 5 since he has to fire at the wall in order to fire at its first target, even though he fired at it in the beginning before engaging the wall. This has happened a couple times for already. Same thing goes with a building or an outhouse in the corner of the map surrounded by water. First they start firing a single shot, then they decide to swim to it, even though they reached it just a second ago by not swimming. really strange behavior.
This bug still persists: @Bl00dBaTh posted a pic in this thread... http://forum.plunderpirates.com/index.php?threads/so-is-the-current-wd-ai-here-to-stay.8651/page-2 I too experience this regularly when HGs are used. Any word whether this might be fixed in a near future update @Lynsey [Midoki] ?
I believe its caused when a bomber explodes and damages multiple walls, as this kind of acts like a signal to troops to "break through here" as otherwise kaboom would be a lot less useful in getting troops to break through those 4-5 wall thick sections in some bases. Troops seem to value a partially damaged wall as a much smaller obstacle than a fully intact wall. Also, if a troop has already picked a path through a wall and started firing on it, they won't stop firing on it until its destroyed, even if another wall is broken, unless they are stunned or knocked back. Since HG can target things before moving in to range (essentially strafing them), perhaps they had already been "targetting" that wall piece before the other hole got opened up, even if they hadn't fired on it yet? Those are the two causes I know of.
Skye's right in both respects. When pirates are pathfinding, they look at the HP of walls, so are more likely to target a damaged wall than an intact one. The Heavy Gunner has massive range due to being able to move and fire at the same time, and is very, very single minded. Once he's targeted something, he will focus on it until it's destroyed. This does mean that you sometimes get the situation that he'll fixate on a wall segment from some distance away, other troops will break through a nearby wall segment, but he'll be still focused on his original target and ignore the gap. The Heavy Gunner's occasionally slow-witted behaviour is as designed, as a balance to his range and damage (we had a tweaked version of him on the dev servers where he was smarter, he was a wee-bit overpowered!).
Ok thanks for the reply about this because it's incredibly annoying to have the HG completely ignore an opening 2 squares over. So you're saying this is NOT a bug & this is his intended AI? You mention that he shoots at walls from some distance away, we've all had him doing this but what about how he starts shooting from right on top of a wall segment & ignores an opening right beside it? Can you help me out & explain his AI in these screenshots? Thanks. Here you can see he's shooting at a wall where an opening is 2 squares down. Again shooting at a wall segment with an opening 2 squares over. This one was the strangest of them all, he is shooting at the fourth wall segment over, as you can see the back of the base is open, no opening was made, rather than walk 4 squares he shot through BOTH layers of wall, it took him at least 10 times longer to do this, I've never seen a HG shoot through 2 layers of wall, I've had them many times getting stuck on 1 wall piece, never 2. This is the one that really puzzles me.
If he was deployed before the opening was made, he can target the wall and have his path planned way in advance (he can target things from all the way across the base, he just can't fire until he's within 14 tiles, but he's still locked on to it and strafing it). Other troops don't lock on until they are in firing range, so they can change their mind and go through a new hole if they haven't started attacking yet. Once the troop is locked on its target won't change until it is destroyed, or the troop is knocked back or stunned. Its just more apparent with HG because they lock on from any distance away.
I never deploy HG until the base has been penetrated, he's the very last crew member I drop. In all those SS I posted the damage done to the walls was all done before the HG was dropped.
In Bl00d's last pic as he stated there was an gap in the wall, not destroyed wall, it never existed- the player has a gap 4 squares wide, check it out. There is no doubt a problem in the AI pathfinding in this case. Second, if you believe Bl00d that he drops his HG after a wall opening has been completed, then neither you nor @Lynsey [Midoki] have explained that behavior. If that is true it's still a path finding problem where for some dumb reason he likes to shoot walls when an easy walk is available. As far as balance of troop power, not wanting to have overpowered pirates is worthy (esp. not invincibility), but the problem is where one pirate behaves so erratically. I don't mind the HG range, it makes sense, it's been explained and can be adjusted for defensively to protect your most valuable defenses, but on offense when the HG sits for a wall squat for 45 seconds some battles there is a problem.
That's a fair point - if the gap already exists (whether by design or has been destroyed) before the HG is deployed, he should factor that into his pathfinding. It's not something I've seen myself, but I'll let Battle Guy know.
