Path finding is the fundamental feature of RTS game.
Patching in Warcraft 3 is not smooth as other modern RTS games.
Hero moves faster usually get stuck by slower units.
Large army has trouble in moving formation.
AI player cannot control army with hundreds of units (happens in custom maps).
Hey dear devs, Path finding code need upgrade or improvement to keep the game alive!
āmodern RTSā
Tbf WC3 isnāt really modern anymore heck its now older than WC1 and 2 when ROC released. Fixing the pathfinding though isnāt a bad idea.
if you think wc3 pathfinding is bad you havenāt played the first two games lol
Improvement to path finding algorithm (if realistically feasible) would be interesting - could even be a setting for custom maps given stuff might behave quite differently (possible even more options but thats asking for a lot)
However wc3 not being smooth like other rts and other interactions and what not are a FEATURE which ought to remain - this should be about faster code less limitations NOT behavior
Warcraft 3 is known for clunky pathing. This is because the game was released in 2002 and processing capabilities were a limiting factor. This also led to a relatively zoomed-in view compared to contemporary games and relatively few but valuable units. In contrast to for example AoE IV and SC II.
Pathing has received changed in Reforged though: the perimeter taken into account when units are ordered to move has been decreased. You can see this by units often getting stuck at one side at the base, whereas the other side is just open: however, it is too far away for the game to calculate this. In addition, it seems it re-calculates less often to factor in non-solid objects such as other units. This is for example why militia or ghoul swarms feel notably more clunky than on the legacy platform. Which isnāt particular aided by the change to unit selection priority (which is smaller) and selection priority (which is less intuitive and effective). This less frequent iteration of recalculating behavior can also be seen when trying to pull creeps: they now take about 0.2 seconds at times before moving out - this used to be much quicker. In addition: targeting one of your own units used to instantly redirect creeps, but now this is only assessed at particular mechanics such as a new auto attack.
More changes where introduced, although not mentioned. Presumed to be unintentional. E.g. in the preparation towards Reforged, and update accidentally provided all creeps with a full mana pool at the start of the game; which is contradicting the intended design in which creeps scale a tad more with regular army development. But more changes can be seen: e.g. the Markura Deepseer now summons his minions when the camp is attacked, rather than when he himself is attacked. Level 6 trolls now give priority to statues, as statues cast an ability that inflate their ālevelā and surpassing the logic threshold of the troll that normally goes āfirst come first serveā - obnoxiously enough you see the same priority change when healing salves may be applied to grunts.
More commonly observable you can see creeps now failing to return to their original location or even going back to sleep - and they may retain a shifted or notably prolonged hostility; even when you get somewhat in range after several minutes creeps may move out to actively engage a prior attacker.
Nothing of this was mentioned or makes sense, so likely these changes dripped into the spaghetti code when they try to modernize the code, as not even blizzard was still familiar with the legacy code.
At times I still stare blank into the void wondering how the pro community is not, or was not, on outrage on these changes. People I know with like >1600 MMR on Champions often have developed a second nature to behaviours in the game, and they instantly notice how difficult it is to pick up items, attack an unit behind a share controlled ally, smaller units are notoriously harder to click, and so on. I canāt image that people over >2k MMR are oblivious to it. In fact, two returning friends both uttered the same phrase in their first game: what the duck happened to surrounds in this game?!
I wish, but itās not gonna happen. First there are gonna be multiplayer people complaining hard if this was changed globally, second, they havenāt improved it in the previous games either.
In some ways, Iād say Warcraft 2 pathing is better than 3. If you send two melee armies against one another, theyāre able to all get into the fight in a few seconds. In 3, your units will be blocking each other for 10+ seconds before theyāre able to start attacking. The issue there was units making their way across a map, theyād get stuck on forests and mountains.
They get stuck on each other in 2 though. Sure itās not a huge number on Remaster but Iām usually having to move around a footman or two even on the Bnet edition.