A few questions on Pathgridding

[ub3rman123]

1. Does a more complex pathgrid lead to lag?

2. Do creatures use the blue pathgrid markers?

3. What do enemies do with pathgrids when in combat?

[David Brasher]

(1) I do not think complex pathgrids cause lag. There are definitely other things that large amounts of lag and are the more obvious culprits. Path-gridding doesn't even use much memory and increase file size much.

(2) Creatures do prefer blue pathgrid markers. All actors do. I have seen NPCs go far out of their way to use blue pathgrid markers. Blue pathgrid markers can be especially helpful for things like bridges and staircases where there is only one or two ways to get somewhere.

(3) Path-gridding gets less attention paid to it during battle, but is still very very important. Lets say an ogre in a pit in a cave sees me and attacks me. He will charge straight at me. But the wall of the pit is in the way and he will bump into it. He will run against the wall for a second like a stupid idiot, and then consult the gridpathing. He will discover that he needs to go out around the steep wall and reach the ramp to climb out and whip up on the puny adventurer.

 

Now if you tried to save time by not gridpathing your dungeon, it would be very bad. The ogre would be eternally stuck in the pit, running up against the wall, and might never get close enough to me to hurt me. I could kill him with arrows or ranged spells. My companion might decide not to follow me into a dungeon with no gridpathing, and I would get lonely. In some instances, the monsters get lost and don't appear where they are supposed to if there is no gridpathing.

 

So I am very glad you are learning about pathgridding.

[Dracula420]

1. probably. keep pathgriding simple epecially if it in like a house or something. if its a dungeon then try to keep it simple and spread out a bit unles it need to be narrow for stairs or something.

 

2. blue marks roads for NPC travel between cities if i remember correctly. creature dont really care about it unless the are on there way to a city for whatever reason.

 

3.enemies will observe pathgridding to keep from falling off a ledge or to get around a pillar or something same as when out of combat. pathgridding is mostly ignore when withing melee distance of the player tho.

 

i hope that helps and answers your questions. for more info try here:CS Wiki Pathgrid Page

[ub3rman123]

Thanks for the info, it's proven quite useful!

[theuseless]

I posted similar questions a while ago. I got very detailed advice from local moderator Vagrant0. Instead of plagiarizing the post, I will simply link it,

 

http://thenexusforums.com/index.php?showtopic=173366&st=0&p=1491768&hl=%20theuseless%20path%20grid&fromsearch=1&&do=findComment&comment=1491768