Pathing nowadays
 

What happened to pathing?

There's always been some spots where pathing was weird in any given zone. A mob cut through a wall section while on a pathing route, a pet would bug through the floor if you told him to guard in just the wrong spot, a mob would run away from you to take a goofy route to get to you and train you, etc. But it never used to be that sooooo many moving mobs took such bad routes to get from point A to point B.

It looks like there are posts in the Velious bug section about a bunch of different specific pathing issues, but I feel like pathing all over classic and kunark is far worse now than it was in the past. When I was describing how ridiculously terrible the pathing by the keep area in lguk live side is to the fella who recommended I go try that area out, he reported that he never saw any odd pathing there when he was there years ago.

But it's not ALWAYS bad. I just watched an NPC path directly off of a ledge, a like 10-foot drop, walking to his next pause point, instead of walking around the ledge to the far side where there are stairs that lead down to the next pause point. But when I tashed that dude, he ran around to the stairs and around the ledge (and trained me) along the way, instead of coming straight back at me.

That keep in lguk is definitely the worst example I've ever seen on here of terrible pathing, but like I said, it doesn't feel like pathing as a whole is making as much sense as it used to. What gives?

Fear kiting has always been a nightmare for me on p99 (since 2010). On live I had a lot easier time with my SK, things usually took a predictable route that was straight in this direction and then maybe change directions 2-3 times per fear. On here it took caffeine boosted twitch response to stay on a mob as it jitter-bugged all over place.

I actually Think pet pathing has gotten alot better since last big patch, one example being Crystal Caverns whenever my pet would walk around a certain corner in spider tunnel or moving down through the geo tunnel it would Always end up in the back of the terror tunnel.

That is fixed now, havent really had any pets poofing lately tbh.
Can't stay if its any better in places like the Caves between Emp and those other dudes in Seb, that used to be a nightmare from what i've Heard.

You'll find your answer reading patch notes from mid-late 2015.

A few areas became notably worse, such as sebilis, and apparently guk. We didn't see myconids strolling down the hall to disco before those changes.

On the up side, based on the limited amount of charming I've done the last year+, 'pet guard' seems to cause fewer pet warps.

The sonic bat closest to the zoneline now returns to his little ledge when he gets memblurred, which is an improvement.

OK, so some good and some bad. At least I can find some comfort in knowing that I shouldn't run into any spots that are worse than this spot in lguk... lol. I'll bug report it with details when I know them well.

I'm skittish about talking to devs about pathing. I once complained that my pet kept walking through a wall in HS south, and the next thing I knew the whole wing had new pathing, old safespots weren't safe anymore, a new safespot popped up, etc :)

Haynar *was* working on the pathing a while back. As I recall: His original patch really messed things up, and they repatched a couple of times to settle it down. At any rate I don't think it worked out as well in the end as they had hoped, and I think they've more or less stopped working on it since, at least from a whole-game perspective.
I too think pathing in general is pretty messed up on the server. People have gotten used to it now so there's not a lot of bitching lately, but it's still pretty bad in a lot of spots.
In Haynar's defense, not that he needs me to defend him, the pathing issue has got to be one of the hardest nuts to crack, with zillions of side effects all over the place.

For awhile Xygoz and the wurms from his area in VP would occasionally skydive off the balcony rather than pathing down and turn his like 2 min+ pull into a 20 second one. Also if I did a trainup and stood in a particular area before xygoz's locked door then the front of the train would come through the wall behind me rather than path into his area through the door. Pathing has gone through all kinds of weird ass phases on this server, but right now its not too bad.

Lower Guk and Permafrost I feel have had issues with mobs running through or falling through walls for a long time

Sebilis disco as well. problem is when you fix something in one spot, it usually breaks 5 others.