Can AI handle rivers?

[marcusm]

One of drawbacks with CM series, was the AI inability to handle
situations like river crossings by boat.

Does this engine support any kind of boating action?

[junk2drive]

Not in this release. You or the AI can cross shallow water.

[Erik Rutins]

As junk2drive said, we don't have amphibious/boat capabilities in this release. However, with that said I believe the AI could handle it if we did, but we'll just have to prove that in the next release. [8D]

[marcusm]

Sounds promising.

[Deride]

ORIGINAL: marcusm
One of drawbacks with CM series, was the AI inability to handle
situations like river crossings by boat.

Does this engine support any kind of boating action?

As said above, the game does not have boation action. But, as to the AI's ability to handle it -- the pathing algorithm is based on a fairly standard approach (called A* for those of you in the know.) With things like boating actions, etc., it is just a matter of telling the AI the speed of crossing vs. the speed of going around for it to figure out the best way to go.

For example, if you put very rough terrain directly in front of a vehicle but wanted it to go straight, the AI can look and see the 'cost' (i.e., maximum velocity over a shorter distance) of going directly straight through the rough terrain vs. the 'cost' (i.e., maximum velocity over a longer distance) to go around the terrain.

To support things like river crossings, a new 'river passable' terrain would need to be introduced into the terrain maps, and the AI would need to understand the cost of movement (or if particular units were unable to cross at all.) Planning this move would be straight forward, and then it would be a matter of adding in any additional animations on screen to show what happens when a unit first enters the water and when it comes out.

Deride