[0.18.3] - AI is not able to aim at player when constantly changing direction

Bugs that are actually features.
Post Reply
nem
Manual Inserter
Manual Inserter
Posts: 2
Joined: Sun Feb 02, 2020 8:41 pm
Contact:

[0.18.3] - AI is not able to aim at player when constantly changing direction

Post by nem »

If you constantly change direction, the AI is not able to aim its acid at the player. It seems it misses by more than it should.
I have made a small video to illustrate the issue, hope youtube is OK.

Please forgive me if this is a known issue. I havent played in years and i dont remember how it used to be.
https://youtu.be/kEgf3tUxkSQ

theolderbeholder
Fast Inserter
Fast Inserter
Posts: 135
Joined: Wed Sep 20, 2017 5:45 pm
Contact:

Re: [0.18.3] - AI is not able to aim at player when constantly changing direction

Post by theolderbeholder »

This is "works as designed".

Thank the gods.

posila
Factorio Staff
Factorio Staff
Posts: 5202
Joined: Thu Jun 11, 2015 1:35 pm
Contact:

Re: [0.18.3] - AI is not able to aim at player when constantly changing direction

Post by posila »

Thanks for the report.
It's not a bug.

traycer
Inserter
Inserter
Posts: 40
Joined: Fri Jul 07, 2017 5:40 am
Contact:

Re: [0.18.3] - AI is not able to aim at player when constantly changing direction

Post by traycer »

Spitters used to have acid attacks that could home in on your location, which frankly didn't make sense and made the game frustrating rather than challenging. Now, they will at least lead the target with their attacks, but if you change direction in the meantime, then obviously the attack won't correct itself in mid-flight (which it used to do). Use this to your advantage when outnumbered or outgunned by spitters and worms. You can run back and forth like you do in your video, or if you actually need to go somewhere, run in a zig-zag pattern (or any movement that frequently changes direction).

This was discussed about a year ago in an FFF (scroll down to "Worm and Spitter stream attack"):
https://factorio.com/blog/post/fff-279

User avatar
BlueTemplar
Smart Inserter
Smart Inserter
Posts: 2421
Joined: Fri Jun 08, 2018 2:16 pm
Contact:

Re: [0.18.3] - AI is not able to aim at player when constantly changing direction

Post by BlueTemplar »

The issue is that worms seem to only consider the instantaneous player speed to calculate the future position of the player.
This works IRL because inertia means that one cannot instantly change one's speed vector.
But this breaks hilariously in the game, since the player doesn't seem to have any inertia - as seen in this example.

Since adding inertia to the player would likely make the game annoying (and we already have it in vehicles),
my suggestion would be for worms to integrate over a higher time duration to get the player speed vector.

(Hopefully this would only cause performance issues for mods with army vs army mechanics ?)

EDIT : This would hopefully make for a better gameplay by rewarding players that would significantly change their trajectory after a worm has fired their spit.
BobDiggity (mod-scenario-pack)

User avatar
Klonan
Factorio Staff
Factorio Staff
Posts: 5156
Joined: Sun Jan 11, 2015 2:09 pm
Contact:

Re: [0.18.3] - AI is not able to aim at player when constantly changing direction

Post by Klonan »

BlueTemplar wrote:
Thu Feb 06, 2020 11:17 am
Since adding inertia to the player would likely make the game annoying (and we already have it in vehicles),
I think adding momentum to player movement would be cool

User avatar
eradicator
Smart Inserter
Smart Inserter
Posts: 5206
Joined: Tue Jul 12, 2016 9:03 am
Contact:

Re: [0.18.3] - AI is not able to aim at player when constantly changing direction

Post by eradicator »

Klonan wrote:
Thu Feb 06, 2020 11:41 am
BlueTemplar wrote:
Thu Feb 06, 2020 11:17 am
Since adding inertia to the player would likely make the game annoying (and we already have it in vehicles),
I think adding momentum to player movement would be cool
"Momentum" is what input lag is called in real life.
Author of: Belt Planner, Hand Crank Generator, Screenshot Maker, /sudo and more.
Mod support languages: 日本語, Deutsch, English
My code in the post above is dedicated to the public domain under CC0.

Post Reply

Return to “Not a bug”