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From: bruck@actcom.co.il (Uri Bruck)
Subject: Re: Avoiding Other Units While Pathfinding
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Date: Sat, 27 Apr 1996 13:52:14 GMT
Lines: 41

sshah@intranet.ca wrote:

>To: Spavlina@pacificnet.net
>Subject: Re: Avoiding Other Units

> Sp> take the field.  But what do you do when the squatter is trapped as
> Sp> well.  An example from Warcraft 2:  If you have peasants mining an
> Sp> area with only one way in or out, through a narrow pass that is only 1
> Sp> unit's width, the peasants will often get stuck.  In fact, on a
>[...]
> Sp> Any ideas for a good solution to this problem?

>Enter emergent behaviour.

>Imagine this situation, where each letter is a unit:

>\ABC/
> |D|
>/EFG\

>F wants to go up, but D is blocked.  However, if F puts a message on the
>global message queue telling D to move out of the way, D will select a
>direction (say in the direction of A).  Now D is blocked by A.  D puts a
>message on the global message queue for A to move, and it will.  Then D moves,
>so F can move.  And all this gets repeated for B.

>Problems:  A may choose to move behind B.  You may also want to communicate
>directions not to move to in the message.  In this case, you'd tell A not to
>go to B or behind B or you'd restrict D to moving beside F.
>--
If you the units are posting these global messagea, might it not be
better to sepcify which spot they want to be cleared, rather than
which unit? 
They should also post in the same message their current location, so
we won't get one unit posting about a spot where it wants to go and
the unit that stands in that spot, responding by asking to clear the
spot where the first unit is. 

Uri


