Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - Suggestions & Feedback AI Smarter Autopathing

Yeah I mean there is also the strong possibility that after such long periods of elapsed time, that you also get a sort of stacking effect, like hitting the same walls again, which may lend itself to more hyperbolic reactions in general. So like at patch 1 it definitely seemed fairly horrid to me, but then that was launch so you make a lot of allowances. Patch 2 was fairly hot on the heels. Launch was week was Oct 6, 2020 and Patch 2 came out what early November, which I think set up the expectation that things might move at a pretty steady clip. Like perhaps with hotfixes rolling out on the daily, and patches coming out every few weeks. Patch 3 landed in Dec? (I can't even remember lol) with the first savegame branching. The top line of the patchnotes read "improved character follow movement" the third and fourth lines read "All characters now correctly stop running when forced turn-based mode is activated" and "Companions will now jump to follow the main player character." To give some sense of where it was at lol.

Towards the very end of the patch notes we got the line "Jumping down a hole now teleports any following characters as well" which has been like an internal metaphor for me about EA expectations ever since hehe. No new class or much really on the pathing front in my view in that patch, except for that now Us would clear the first jump on the Nautiloid without having to be controlled and commanded directly. Some of the surface effects and such were dialed back though and jump did seem a bit improved. That's when expectations were tempered and hardened a bit probably, and I think also when the bitterest mammoth threads began to pop up on these boards like mushrooms in centipede or something. Patch 4 with the Druid didn't drop till what late Feb 2021, with a longer intervening period. Somewhere in there, I can't recall, is when the unchain all toggle was added but not announced. Patch 5 was what like early July 2021, with Minthara's new hair and some chaos? Some long runs between patches there. I had nearly forgotten about the game. Another shorter interval of 3 months to get to patch 6 and the Sorcerer. But in that time nothing much has been changed for the command and control aspect of the game. Like I'm more used to it now, and have a couple keybind hacks that make it somewhat simpler to manage for me, but it's still frustrating.

I can envision a situation like the OP described. Battle ends, the selected Character is on the ground floor, or maybe jumped or misty stepped somewhere further afield during combat. Combat ends, without remaining in initiative (or TB hourglass) so all the other characters scramble to "catch up." Instead of backtracking to walk down the ladder, or climb down along a sensible path, Shadowheart just jumps from the rafters along the shortest distance and falls prone in a pool of acid. Lae'zel starts to climb down the ladder, but then the Selected PC starts moving somewhere else, and so she starts reclimbing the ladder again to close the shortest distance. Meanwhile Astarion is body blocked by Lae'zel from beginning his descent on the ladder and so decides to just dance in place until everything sorts itself out. Maybe everything would have gone smooth, but then the player selected another character at the wrong time, and everyone changed direction and started running or jumping the wrong way at that point. I've seen it happen so many times in EA in different places that it very easy for me to imagine a situation like the OP describes. This occurrence probably is rarer than what might be suggested by people's posts to the boards, that the negative experience becomes outsized (like rolling a 1 when it really mattered) but the fact that it sticks with the player as a real annoyance so much so that they'd log onto the Larian home boards to raise the issue, speaks to how frustrating it can be. Like especially if the rest of the battle was hard fought and rather rewarding, but it ended on that sour note. That's what tends to stick with the player.

The first thing they could do which has been suggested elsewhere is to always remain in initiative post combat for a grace period. It's been mentioned usually in the context of a downed party member or somebody bleeding out. But a more general application would be to have exiting turn based mode following combat manual by default. Effectively a pause. Also to have all party members unchained by default when a combat concludes, and manually rechained only when the player prompts this. That right there would cut down on half the mishaps that are commonly mentioned. Like someone jumping or doubling back over a trap or surface precisely at the moment when such an AI decision has the most potential to end disastrously hehe. It really wouldn't shore up the issues I have with general movement, but it would be an improvement over the current.