BF v2.6.47: Pathfinding ignores Napalm

[Meee!]

BF 2.6.47 (on Android v7.1.1, Samsung Galaxy Note8, running in DEX-Mode): A search didn't bring up any hits, so I hope this is not a duplicate thread. On my first mission using a Hydra Templar, after setting some tiles on fire, I ordered a Templar to move from A to B.
The game's pathfinding decided to choose a path that led through some tiles on fire, resulting in some fire damage and heat rising for that Templar. Bug of feature? Anyway, as there is no "undo move" feature, I think this should be corrected!

Proposal: Inform the player that the shortest path will use number of tiles on fire (resulting in fire damage from - to, plus number heat) and ask for confirmation. Offer to take another route with NO tiles on fire, showing the destination tile (closest to the tile chosen by the player). Also, this could be a setting in game options, so players could choose a preferred behaviour.

Alternatively, a "undo move" feature could help (only allowing to undo movement from A to B, not to undo attacks and so on). But probably that would rise other issues/arguments (e. g. could be abused to do scouting), so I'm not sure.

Any thoughts?

[drspendlove]

I'd personally be happy with a UI that didn't pause to second-guess my actions. However, there are often times when there are two or more equal length paths to my desired destination and the game will select one that unnecessarily leads me through a patch of flame. I'd be happy if this were optimized away. Depending on the pathfinding algorithm, you might just be able to apply a cost of 0.00001 to tiles with fire (assuming the cost for a normal tile starts at 1.) Then paths with flame would only be selected if, and only if, they were the shortest route and no non-flame paths were equally short. It would also optimize for the fewest tiles of flame that way, supposing multiple tiles of flame and multiple paths through them.

[fallen]

@meee - when you make the first click for a move in TBF, the path you will take is highlighted. Then your second click or tap executes the move. So, you can see when you are going to move through napalm already, which was your proposal.

[Meee!]

fallen: True, I know. But BF does it in a way that's too fast for my slow brain/eyes/whatever. The path is shown for a very short time (1 second?) and I will concentrate on the destination tile and most likely in the most undesireable situation, I will forget to manually check the path. Add the missing "undo move" feature and this will result in me screaming at my screen for how stupid the game is (in this concern, not generally). Other games take a different approach: the first click/tap will highlight the path with the highlighting on until you finally confirm your choice by the second click/tap. If I had a choice, I would opt for the later. Sadly, in BF I don't have a choice. Anyway, I would prefer the pathfinding would respect the tiles on fire and try to find a path not crossing any of it. Or ask me to confirm the hot route. :-)

drspendlove: True. Too many interruptions by the UI will unnerve players. In this case, I wouldn't mind. I assume, I won't regularly make moves that arise the problem. And if "Hot route confirmation" was a setting in game options, both of us could get happy. On the other hand, I agree that probably the pathfinding algorithm is the core issue. You said that applying a cost of 0.00001 to tiles with fire could be a solution to it. But, if normal tiles have a cost of 1.0 - wouldn't the tiles on fire then have to have a cost of greater than 1.0? Like 1.00001? Or am I missing something? The shortest path is the path with the least cost, isn't it?

[drspendlove]

I meant to add a tiny cost, not to set them to a tiny cost. The reason for the smallness of the cost addition is to make it so longer paths are always less preferable to shorter paths even if those shorter paths are on fire.