[0.17.14] Biters freeze if the player is not near

[manhelsink]

When the player is at some distance from biters, most of them (sometimes all) freeze their motion and don't attack, even when they are reached by pollution. If the player goes nearer to them, they start to move and gather again.

The behaviour can be observed here:
https://youtu.be/wm1a1njkIMc
And here its how they will resume their activity when near:
https://youtu.be/wm1a1njkIMc?t=58

I attached the savefile and the log.
The game is not modded.

Edit:
I have just notice that attack groups do form also when the player is away, which should mean that the normal behaviour of the attacking biters is not affected. But it might still be considered a bug that "defensive" biters are shown frozen on the radar, since it is confusing and it breaks immersion.

[TheRealBecks]

I can confirm that bug. I already posted in the Bob's mod forum, so here once again:

Pollution is still consumed by biter nests. See the attached screenshots...

Pollution in the last 10 h:

pollution.jpeg (322.03 KiB) Viewed 2999 times

Kills in the last 10 h:

pollution.jpeg (322.03 KiB) Viewed 2999 times

...and kills in the last 1 h:

pollution.jpeg (322.03 KiB) Viewed 2999 times

So, as everyone can see, it's not working correctly.

Edit:
And if the biters start to move, because you're near them, they will still not going to attack. So movement and attacking isn't working.

[orzelek]

There are two separate biter mechanics - ones that wander around bases would not attack - they are the defence force and they freeze if you are not near to save performance.

I'm not sure if there is a debug option that will show if those frozen ones are an attack group or defensive one.

Edit:
Looking at your minimap - are you trying to farm those biters on the island? Do they have a way to pathfind to your base?
I recall that biters will do strange things if they hav eproblems pathing to their target - and going around water is not exactly best feature of biter AI.
It might be different then OP's problem - what he is seeing are sleeping defense biters. It's strange that they won't generate actual attacks still.

[manhelsink]

I'm not sure if there is a debug option that will show if those frozen ones are an attack group or defensive one.

The problem is that also attack groups don't seem to form. When I'm near I get an attack every few minutes, while when I'm in some other part of the map that area never gets attacked.

[orzelek]

I'm not sure if there is a debug option that will show if those frozen ones are an attack group or defensive one.

The problem is that also attack groups don't seem to form. When I'm near I get an attack every few minutes, while when I'm in some other part of the map that area never gets attacked.

You can try to use pathing debug to see if they are actually trying to path and failing or there are not attackers at all.
Also if that miners there go asleep since belts are full they will not generate pollution. If there is no pollution from somewhere else biters might not attack.

[manhelsink]

I'm not sure if there is a debug option that will show if those frozen ones are an attack group or defensive one.

The problem is that also attack groups don't seem to form. When I'm near I get an attack every few minutes, while when I'm in some other part of the map that area never gets attacked.

You can try to use pathing debug to see if they are actually trying to path and failing or there are not attackers at all.
Also if that miners there go asleep since belts are full they will not generate pollution. If there is no pollution from somewhere else biters might not attack.

You can see from the video that the pollution covers the biters while they are frozen, and what makes them move is just getting nearer to them (even if not in attack range). Also it would be strange for it to be a path issue, as there is nothing blocking the way and the attacks actually happen when the player is nearer.

[manhelsink]

I have just notice that attack groups do form also when the player is away, which should mean that the normal behaviour of the attack biters is not affected. But it might still be considered a bug that "defensive" biters are shown frozen on the radar, since it is confusing and it breaks immersion.

[TheRealBecks]

Looking at your minimap - are you trying to farm those biters on the island? Do they have a way to pathfind to your base?
I recall that biters will do strange things if they hav eproblems pathing to their target - and going around water is not exactly best feature of biter AI.
It might be different then OP's problem - what he is seeing are sleeping defense biters. It's strange that they won't generate actual attacks still.

Nope, I created that island just for fun The behaviour belongs to all biters all over the map. Here's the actual map:

map.jpeg (138.68 KiB) Viewed 2957 times

The game has still 60 UPS, so it's not a performance issue.

[Oxyd]

They are supposed to freeze if the player is far enough.

Not forming attack groups would be a bug indeed, but I don't see that type of problem in your save, and it seems that you simply missed the attack groups that do form.

Not a bug.

[TheRealBecks]

Hi Oxyd,

I already got the point about the freeze. But nevertheless we get way less than 1 % of the attacks from the updates before. Also the 'groups' consists of maximum four biters, I haven't seen bigger groups so far. So it's a bug