Am I the only one immensely impressed by Skyrim AI follower pathfinding?

[Andante]

and no I'm not being sarcastic.

1. I'm on top of mountain... I decide to face hug the mountain all the way down since I didn't feel like taking the long route. Ran into a bandit camp and a couple minutes later my follower joins in... I was like , my follower somehow pathed itself like 2 miles down a mountain.

2. I decide to trek on horse to a quest literally more than half way across the map, my horse goes way faster than my follower who is wearing heavy armor. I decide to not kill anything and focus on getting to my destination... probably ended up having a couple giants, dozens of bandits, a few sabertooths give chase on me while I treked to my destination. 10 minutes later, I'm at my destination and I decide to explore/clear some bandits, then my follower catches up to me a few minutes later. Again I was like ... how the hell did my follower path through giant camps, bear dens, bandit camps and not get killed along the way.

IMO the pathfinding for followers is freaking amazing considering the fact that they can't jump or take advantage of face hugging mountains like players do.

(oh btw if they are blocking any doors... mouse over your follower, hold down the E key and order your follower to move elsewhere)

 

[Aetherlblade]

I think your follower is teleported close to you, as far as i have seen from their behaviour in other situations then yours they are rather suicidal, so it would never make it to you imo.

 

[pliusmannn]

they respawn nearby settlements or other stuff you find through the map. their pathfinding is bad, also they stand in doorways, makes me kinda, want to kill them right away. they ae good for carrying goods though

 

[hazabaza1]

While I don't use followers I must admit I haven't seen anyone get caught on a rock or somesuch in over 50 hours of play. Good show, Bethesda.

 

[Patinator]

I'm more impressed with the fack that when my assassin type charactor was sneaking, my companion in freakin full plate snuck with me too. And he didnt alert them either, very handy.

Also, i am going to remember the trick to move them. Handy that.

 

[Smooth Operator]

IMO the pathfinding for followers is freaking amazing considering the fact that they can't jump or take advantage of face hugging mountains like players do.

They just respawned closer to you, no pathfinding was involved.
I most frequently find them beached on a rock or a blade of grass, then leave them and after some distance they will pop up again.

They just have a basic AI with cockup corrections.

 

[Wekub]

...And yet they can teleport.

 

[King of the Sandbox]

I doubt the teleport theory to some extent. I scaled a mountain the 'wrong way' got to the top, looked down, and saw Barbas and Faendal following the 'regular' path up the whole way.

 

[kebab4you]

Quick link the "you´re never the only one" image(at school don't have access to it).

OT: The issue is that they can't jump, and as a result it´s easy to make the poor AI cry in despair.

 

[Tallim]

I won't take followers with me, the quest based ones can't even walk to their quest location without getting jammed against stuff or going the wrong way for ages before suddenly remembering where they were going.

One I was following got to a closed gate. Walked into it for about 10 seconds then floated up and over it and down the other side. It was locked and I had to find another way around.

 

[Abedeus]

I doubt the teleport theory to some extent. I scaled a mountain the 'wrong way' got to the top, looked down, and saw Barbas and Faendal following the 'regular' path up the whole way.

Same, my follower was following me through a giant camp instead of breaking the game by jumping on the rocks above.

 

[Exocet]

Why does everyone have a problem with them blocking doorways? Whenever it happens,I just walk out to them and start running.They recoil back telling you to watch it,then you can go through.

But yeah,Lydia has a habit of coming in at the perfect moment.

 

[])rStrangelove]

They teleport to you when you're unreachable, i've seen it with Lydia. Turned around and she dropped from a ledge and fell off into the darkness, then suddenly she was standing right in front of me again.

Still, doesnt bugger me much. Normally you dont realize it anyway.

 

[The Wykydtron]

I don't take followers with me anymore, just because most of the quests in the game just feel like a "lone adventurer" type thing. And having Lydia (God bless her soul) blunder her way through all the traps i'd just avoided is annoying/hilarious.

As a side note, who else thinks the random dungeons are like an epic battle of wits between the player and the level designer?

 

[targren]

The "long-distance" pathfinding is good (I get the feeling it uses a similar algorithm to the 'Clairvoyance' spell), but up close, they make me want to swallow my own head... *glares at stupid companion dancing in my fire-spout*

 

[Furycrab]

I doubt the teleport theory to some extent. I scaled a mountain the 'wrong way' got to the top, looked down, and saw Barbas and Faendal following the 'regular' path up the whole way.

They have teleport "points". I've seen an AI who lost me due to sneak teleport past me to get back to his initial point since he had fallen down into an area where the path to get back was likely too complicated.