Factorio Forums

I have seen this wired biters' behaviour for a while, but wasn't sure if it's a bug. Anyway, when a sufficiently large biter attack convoy meets an obstacle, its units just go crazy and loose a sense of direction instead of calmly going around it. I've attaches some pictures, which illustrate the issue. I realise that fixing this will probably require new complicated algorithms for biters and this post will end up in "won't fix", so I wonder whether we will ever see the attacks that look smoother and similar to zombies in They Are Billions?

Save please...

Here is a save at this exact point before attack. Let me know if you need an earlier one.

I see this all the time. They get stuck on cliffs and things when moving as a group.

Not sure if it's related, but they also go insane whenever a large group arrives at the wall.
There's a critical moment when they get just out of range of the lasers..... they stop moving as a group and all start trying to move individually - and what you get is basically like a mosh pit at a rock concert. Only a small fringe of the biters in the front row is able to peel away from the thrashing frenzy, and so they all end up dribbling into the laser wall a few at a time.

With the right AI and settings, bitters could be like zerglings from Starcraft 2... incredibly fast and terrifying, especially in swarms. It would give me a reason to use all the crazy ultra-fortified walls I like to design for the ultra late game, and a reason for late game players to get the damage upgrades for lasers etc. Ah, I know it's a tough ask... but I wish this so dearly for Factorio... more intelligent enemies. :>

i think ed about this kind problem myself some time ago why get stuck myself, when i look game debug then i see it uses for collision the rectangle, for avoid this first place then game need use also circle for lower the collision corners

This looks like their typical derpy behavior,
They are trying to path and path and repath and repath through their friends

We are looking into solutions,
but for now I will move this to not a bug.