I'd assume so as it just looks plain stupid, but it would appear that it's not high on Uber's priority list.
It's definitely going to get fixed, not sure when though. I hear pathing's getting an overhaul some time soon, maybe this will get fixed as part of it, maybe not.
If it was easy to fix, it already would be. Yes, it's on our list, but some times, things have to happen in the order they happen. I've posted in other threads that a pretty big overhaul to pathing is in the works. Regenerating path navigation maps on the fly is tricky and expensive.
Pardon my curiosity, but as a full-time developer with OpenGL, robotics, and AI experience, I have lots of technical questions for you or @neutrino! What is the process for generating the path-navigation maps in the first place, and what datastructure is used to persist the data? I know the data is sent to the client because it was visible in the debug-tools, but because the pathing is calculated server-side, it must be only for debugging-purposes. Are the pathing maps and flow-fields created when the planets are generated for the first time in the system editor, or are they generated when starting a match? Do the temporary terrain-features like trees impact the map currently, and what happens when the forests are burned? If the work to update the pathing/navigation maps in real-time is completely successful, will the gameplay designers like @scathis and @metabolical be able to leverage it in the balance, to enable large-ish explosions, kinetic weapons, and small asteroid impacts effect the terrain (as so desperately asked-for by the community?) Cheers, John
I suppose all pathfinding questions need to be addressed to @Elitron because he is Uber's flow field genius! If you don't have lot of time to spend on forums then you likely want to check my profile page. I collect links related to tech-side of PA here and possible you miss something I posted there. Though I'll try to save some dev time and answer on questions where I seen answers or I did my own research and sure about it. This one is my personal guess, but I mostly sure there is at least some pathfinding code on client-side. Possible it's for debugging purposes and not used by client for real or because it's just not worth to transfer those via network. System editor don't save anything except JSON array with planet position/velocity and generation parameters. Planets generated from scratch every time you create/join game. Trees already do some impact on cost field like buildings do. Basically each tree on map its like a unit, e.g it's have own unique ID and your game client download trees state each time you join game. This is why you see them appear step by step. Here some nice details on how it's working by @UberWilliam: https://forums.uberent.com/threads/units-not-appearing-after-a-crash.51817/#post-793735 I suppose real deformation of terrain is a bit different than just cost field changes like adding/removing stuff on surface.
Is it something the server can start computing ahead of time so that it won't lock up when the planet hits? Once the halleys activate there is no way to stop it from smashing so you could start calculating the new pathing data at that time.
