f13.net forums - Carrier Command sequel

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July 21, 2025, 04:37:28 PM

we're back, baby

Spotted it in the store earlier today and concluded that I'm not buying it for full price with TL2, Xcom, and civ5 still to burn out on. Not to mention the new version of blood bowl next month.

Someone post when it turns up on sale.

Quote from: eldaec on September 29, 2012, 12:34:37 PM

My thoughts exactly. Too many games to play right now, bad release timing for this.

You're right to skip it until a patch or seven. "the tank AI is a bit spotty" is about the same as saying ME3's ending was a bit uneven. The tank pathing is possibly the worst pathing I've see in a video game ever. I get at least one tank stuck doing something stupid (spinning in circles, rocking back and forth, stuck on terrain, ramming a friend and halting them both until you intervene, refusing to repair even though he's in front of the repair station and his orders are to repair, etc etc) every three minutes.

The concept is neat. The presentation is fantastic. The pathing cripples the game in my mind from a 8 or 9/10 to a 6/10. Yeah, it's THAT bad and completely central to the gameplay.

example: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YAdgkTD29Mk

It's really hilariously bad pathing.

I've found some workarounds though.

The Big one is simple., Set separate destinations for each walrus. Its actually pretty easy. Pres 6, click mouse, then 7 *click* 8 *Click* 9 *click*. After a couple of tries and practice, doing this is very fast. The destinations can be pretty close to one another, but as long as they are not the same destination most of the Walruses will happily line up and head for the destination. Generally only one will get hung up on something, and that only happens about 40% of the time. I've actually gotten Walruses to line up and cross a bridge with this method, with little nudging. (The last one got stuck at the end, but it was no problem taking manual control of it and charging in myself)

Don't use "Assist" to drag the walruses after you unless you are in fairly open terrain. Since YOU (or the assisted walrus) is the destination, and therefore the destination is the same, the Walruses will snarl up. Only hit assist when you are in a fight, and the walruses will surround and fight with you. Think of assist as issuing a battle command for the group, not a travel command.

Alternatively, target something, then use the radial menu attack command to send them all off shooting. When the target is destroyed (even if you did the killing) they will be on standby, and won't move until an enemy shows up.

Stick to the roads unless you are running one manually. This one is pretty much a no brainier. The walrus is actually a very good ATV in human hands, but the AI cant handle it. If you want to do that sneaky cross country raid, then you are doing it on your own unless you are willing to swap between them constantly. Sorry. Thankfully the road network on the Islands is pretty good and will get you everywhere you need to go. It seems slopes really mess them up.

Make sure everything's on defensive. On offensive, they create waypoints in the direction of any enemy they spot, thus running off into the wilderness and off cliffs.

I've actually gotten the path-finding AI to down to just minor annoyance levels, with just very occasional babysitting, using these methods and on my last map I had some rip roaring fights with AI walruses and a hell of a lot of fun

If Walruses could rotate in place crap like the above video would stop too. But it cant and has to reverse and turn all the time. That's patch territory. ANyway since I figured out how to get Walrus's behaving themselves better I've been enjoying the game immensely.

Your workaround gives a 40% chance of failure per order, Sir T. That's the sign of really really bad pathfinding ;)

A 40% chance of one walrus getting stuck is better than a 90% chance of all four getting stuck. No-one is denying that the walrus AI has problems. And, I know you are not going to believe this, but I've seen worse vehicle AI. Dark Riegn II was so bad that it would typically get your entire force stuck in turns on the road and then release them one at a time to get murdered by the enemy. Battle Isle 6's was so bad it effectively ended the series.

Incidentally the vehicle AI in Arma, also by BI, famously had problems as well.

I gave it a few more hours, and still think the pathing ruins the otherwise interesting game (also on the list of "what the hell" are things like the AI being terrible gunners and such, but that's entirely believable in the idea that a controlled unit will always be better than an uncontrolled one)

I pretty much love everything about the game except that it rapidly turns into a walrus babysitting simulator :(

There is a demo of the game out now

http://www.carriercommand.com/demo/

I see Carrier Command is half price on Steam. Worth buying?

Yes. There is still some AI problems nut they have fixed the major issues, and the game is technically impressive and is a lot of fun. The MAJOR complaint is the veichle AI, and they have made big strides in fixing it. Its still not perfect but its manageable now.

Besides, its a break from the "every game is the same" whines we get, but when something a bit different comes alone people whine because it's *shock* different.