Sea Travelling Troubles

[Quintillius]

As Nova Aetas gets improved with every update, complaints and bug reports about the sea faring feature don't cease to persist.
The current script is basically from a third-party developer, but hugely polished and improved.

AI pathfinding has always been an issue in Warband and manually controlling the AI is a pain for us developers.
I want to look seriously to this feature and might even replace it with another approach. Some mentioned Perisno's idea by
having static water on the world map where the AI can find its way. Well I do not play M&B mods in general. I rather prefer to develop them.
Can you guys point out some ideas to ensure a bug free and steady AI seafaring feature?

Current problems:
- Lords get stuck along the coastline
- Lords are trapped in a Zendar-Hierosolyma-Hashalla loop
- Mithridians don't loot Sarranid villages correctly.

Personally I prefer to seriously take a look after the current system and follow the AI and add improvements/fixes where possible.
So we have currently two approaches:

1) Current approach
Disadvantages: pathfinding problems, requires time and knowledge to fix

2) Perisno's approach
Disadvantages: static water, ?lords travelling to areas without interest?

 

[Hernanxd16]

Another bug: For no reason, in 4.1, the Acztaoc Tlatoani and one of his vassals, are in a Vaegir castle. Too, i see another Acztaoc nearby Zendar.

 

[Quintillius]

Reminds me of the Sunset Invasion expansion for CKII.

 

[Blackwater]

And lo, did the Acztoacs invent the caravel and sail the known world. And the Calradians looked upon them and thought they were as gods. And then they stabbed the invaders with pikes for not converting to Christianity immediately.

 

[Quintillius]

That's the diary of Plox, the insignificant monk at Telrog Castle.

 

[Blackwater]

It wasn't a very long diary. Plox died of syphilis shortly after writing that one paragraph.

 

[Quintillius]

Together with all of Calradia.

 

[Alfonso dArmigerio]

The Perisno approach seems reasonable. I'm not sure how it works (not played Perisno), but I actually like the idea of lords being able to stick around at sea. I can't imagine Zendar not having at least one fleet at all times. Or the Mithridians.

Would the AI lords be forced to go through cities to get to the ocean? I remember that one of the theories as to why some lords got stuck was that their kingdom (I think Mithridias mostly) went to war with both Sarranids and Zendar and therefore had no path to get home. I think it would be cool to continue that, but the inclusion of a few more harbors would be nice as well.

If the system were changed, would that make trans-oceanic convoys a possibility once the Azctaocs are conquered or from colonies, carrying gold or tobbaco for sale or storage in warehouses? That could, perhaps, be raided Francis Drake-style?

 

[Quintillius]

But Perisno has static water only, which kinda ruins the immersion and graphical quality. I hope I can avoid that. But I admit it works fluently. I fear, however, that lords will be scattered all over the ocean, to the edges of the map. But this fear might be misplaced. Can someone confirm this for Perisno?

AI lords are not restricted from using enemy harbours as they're too dumb to manage this.

What do you exactly mean with trans-oceanic convoys?

 

[Alfonso dArmigerio]

I see your point about the immersion. I do really like your system, it just seems to be plagued.

Oh cool, I never knew that. That answers that theory.

Two varieties:
1. Normal trade convoys from Azctaoc cities (after they've been conquered) to Zendar, one-way, that gives extra income compared to normal intra-Calradia convoys. Really makes Zendar extra lucrative.
2. Probably a ton more coding work; allow colonies above a certain size (with a particular building on tier 4, for example) to automatically generate convoys to sail to either Zendar or another specified port, carrying goods produced by the colony. Currently, colonies are super useful early-game for (reasonably) quick cash, but take a lot of micro-managing to be lucrative when you're fighting wars.
These convoys could either automatically sell their goods (probably for less than the character could, to make personally visiting worth it) or deposit them in a warehouse in Zendar so they can be sold in bulk by the character.
I completely understand if the second one is waaaay too over-the-top in terms of coding. I haven't the slightest idea how to do it.