Argh! Pathfinding...

[Piscinex]

I'm really getting into Generals now, despite having only played through most of the China Campaign, but the pathfinding is really starting to annoy me now. Units move moronically and invariably disobey direct instructions, and using large groups of units, particularly when traversing urban areas, is a nightmare. To me this is really spoiling an otherwise excellent game, anyone else having the same problems?

[Henl86]

Of course.. This was heavily debated during the beta, but eap did little\nothing and released an unfinished game in my eyes.

[Piscinex]

well that's even more annoying, identifying the problem in the beta and still not doing anything about it. even if you stay clear of ridges and buildings (which isn't going to happen most of the time) and use small groups of tanks, it's still a nightmare getting your units to follow your instructions. i think the worst offenders are overlords, which are impossible to use effectively in urban maps as a result, and GLA workers, which always seem to take bizarre routes when mining.

i really hope that something is done about this because it's really spoiling an otherwise excellent game :@

[BlkPagan]

I agree, the pathfinding sucks balls. They should do something like they did in empire earth.

[SL802404]

You can put units in formations...im gonna see if this helps pathfinding at all.

[Piscinex]

you can? how?

[Henl86]

You can?

[SL802404]

I never got around to trying it out, but I think you can. On the back of the manual for hotkeys it says Set Unit Formations : Postion, then select units, press Ctrl + F.

EDIT: Yeh, go to page 9 in the manual. If you dont have the manual this is what it says.
Putting Units into Formation: Formations are groups of units that move together, keeping the same positions relative to each other.
-To create a formation, put the units in the postitions that you want. Then, select all of the units in the formation and press control + F to create the formation. To undo a formation, press Control + F again.

[Henl86]

Ah, ok, does it work?

[Piscinex]

i still don't think this will help when trying to get through cities or up cliffs.

[MeNtLTaNX]

its like Redalert1... u line up ur tanks in a row.. select them hit Cntrl+F and they move in that line.. in any direction

[SL802404]

Yeh, I tried it out. The pathfinding is still bad in formation. I put 5 tanks in one row and 5 tanks behind them in another row. Moved them through the city towards my enemy base and they went wherever they felt like in the city, but when they got to his base they went back into the 2 rows.