Jumping grunt

[Decker]

I got a pack of pests carrying a grunt far, far away from an outpost in the caves. I'm moving at speed 28 and it's gaining ground on me, and so are the pests. Attached save.

[Kyzrati]

Ah, a possible example of the ancient "teleporting grunt" issue? It's been on the list for a while, has gone through several unconfirmed "fixes" (since the precise cause was not identified--there may be more than one), and was scheduled to be looked at again for Alpha 12, so I'll use this when I investigate, thanks.

[Decker]

I believe the unit scheduling is the most likely culprit. The grunt at the far end jumps over all the pests, and they leapfrog each other too, while consuming only the time for a single move.

[Kyzrati]

The primary cause of Swarmer leapfrogging chases was fixed* in Alpha 11, since they have to pay the full time cost now, but all combat robots moving in groups are apparently capable of jumping for a different reason I'll have to track down.

(*well, maybe I should say "modified," because it was originally meant to be that way a long time ago, but had unintended consequences )

[Kyzrati]

This behavior was still observed in Alpha 14, so Beta 1 includes another attempt to modify AI movement to prevent it. Not sure if it's a final fix since I don't know all the circumstances that cause it, but I'm calling it fixed for now until reported again. (And during Beta if someone discovers it again I'll set aside some time for back and forth debugging on this issue.)