[Suggestion] Tamed Animal AI Pathfinding

29 Aug, '21
NoxMortus Merged

Animal AI pathfinding is extremely poor. It is apparent that animals have a predefined patrol route.

In this Beta weekend you do not even bother moving to hunt. You can literally stay at your base and animals well path directly into your expanding base. Once you understand the animal fight mechanics/get Iron tools and weapons, wolves and deer effectively become "uber eats", delivering resources to your doorstep (I have had deer standing ontop of my base (roof was floor tile) waiting to be killed).

Animals (especially deer and wolves) need to have more realistic mechanics and stop pathing into players bases. Whether this is some sort collision coding with player made infrastructure or an extinction like mechanic - ie, over hunting or player expansion in local area kills of animal respawn in that vicinity or coordinate square.

29 Aug, '21
NoxMortus Merged

Animal AI pathfinding is extremely poor. It is apparent that animals have a predefined patrol route.

In this Beta weekend you do not even bother moving to hunt. You can literally stay at your base and animals well path directly into your expanding base. Once you understand the animal fight mechanics/get Iron tools and weapons, wolves and deer effectively become "uber eats", delivering resources to your doorstep (I have had deer standing ontop of my base (roof was floor tile) waiting to be killed).

Animals (especially deer and wolves) need to have more realistic mechanics and stop pathing into players bases. Whether this is some sort collision coding with player made infrastructure or an extinction like mechanic - ie, over hunting or player expansion in local area kills of animal respawn in that vicinity or coordinate square.

14 Sep, '21
El Ruobuob Merged

Animals pathway should simply update with building to keep away from manmade constructions.
Even better if some come slowly close to the buildings, hang around a little bit, the run away in fear.

25 Sep, '21
darcek Merged

My issue with pathing wasn't my base at all.
I found deer, racoon and goats get stuck in rock outcroppings near mountain side.
Just had to come there to this mass of animals and kill all of them away..
Was quite immersion breaking and throws away from the game realism.

27 Dec, '21
Paul Bryant Merged

Please fix/correct the animal AI/pathing in Icarus. Animals get stuck on rocks, trees, ledges, cliffs, trees etc. etc. way too much. I've seen animals in game try to get up or around various obstructions repeatedly for very long periods of time, sometimes after several minutes they just stay in place until the player gets close at which point the repeat the same stuck behavior over and over.

09 Jan, '24
Freedom_Phoenix Merged

Animal pathing around cliffs and such is horrible. I have lost 3 MOA's because when they get hungry and are in proximity to a food trough they will run off the cliff and die instantly. Should be like other games when you are not on your mount they take no fall damage at the very least.

22 Nov, '24
Taragonra Merged

DEVS PLEASE PAY ATTENTION TO THIS ONE!!! I cannot believe this game is almost 3 years old and the pathing AI for animals is still this horrendous. The ai is obviously programed to just "go from point A to point B in the shortest straight line possible" with no obstacle detection or anything! The vapor condenser is practically worthless because mobs will spawn behind rocks or down cliffs and just....sit there. They either de-aggro and run off or just despawn. You have to run around to find them in order to progress the condenser. Pets ad mounts will face plant into walls trying to get to their food and water instead of going through the door next to them. They will also just impale themselves on hedgehogs, making these defensive structures pretty much worthless to put around your base. Seriously, is it that hard to code animals to go AROUND a freaking rock?!

22 Nov, '24
Taragonra Merged

I cannot believe this game is almost 3 years old and the pathing AI for animals is still this horrendous. The ai is obviously programed to just "go from point A to point B in the shortest straight line possible" with no obstacle detection or anything! The vapor condenser is practically worthless because mobs will spawn behind rocks or down cliffs and just....sit there. They either de-aggro and run off or just despawn. You have to run around to find them in order to progress the condenser. Pets ad mounts will face plant into walls trying to get to their food and water instead of going through the door next to them. They will also just impale themselves on hedgehogs, making these defensive structures pretty much worthless to put around your base. Seriously, is it that hard to code animals to go AROUND a freaking rock?!

03 Dec, '24
Elissa - Producer System Merged

"PLEASE FIX ANIMAL PATHING AI!!" (suggested by <Hidden> on 2024-11-22), including upvotes (1) and comments (0), was merged into this suggestion.

13 Dec, '24
Valethar Merged

Animal pathing, especially for 'domestic' animals sucks. Hard.

If you build a 'stable' area for your mounts, etc.. they will get stuck on each other, and anything else in the structure (pillars, troughs, feeders, etc...) and end up stuck together in one large clump.

Apparently, they're also too stupid to walk around objects to find food and water. If the water trough is on the opposite side of the food trough from where they're standing, they'll starve rather than walk around it to find the other trough.

Likewise, if you happen to be outside your base, opening the gates, and the animal is hungry, they'll attempt to beeline straight through the hedgehogs and palisades, rather than walk through the open gate mere feet away from them.

This isn't hard technology to implement. It's basic NPC AI that pretty much every modern (and some not so modern!) game has at some level. There's no excuse for it's lack here. None.

29 May, '25
d_pa Merged

(Tamed) animals get stuck a lot, e.g. in caves or stones in general. However, this is also true for the way to water or food throughs. As soon as something is in the way, the animal keeps on walking and, hence, is being stuck, without trying to find another path. I also have the problem in a house when an animal was persistently trying to walk through the wall instead of leaving the house to get to the throughs located outside (and behind this wall).

05 Sep, '25
Robert

We found that we can use a leash to help guide animals, but it is still a huge pain. We are not able to use the leash on baby animals that are not trained yet, so it makes it very tough to handle the baby animals. It would be nice if our animals were smarter. I also have issues where the animal is set to follow or stay... then I try to look at the leveling up stats and abilities, but the animals walks away and I am pulled out of the menu. That is really annoying.

04 Oct, '25
Jason

As a temp fix I'd like to see their speed increased. Being able to outrun a wolf on foot seems very silly. If they could at least keep up with foot/mount speed they might not fall behind as much

15 Oct, '25
Megah

Tamed pets and mounts, specially the aggressive ones, should be able to move at speed of at least 1300 (this is easily achieved on foot, and you can have unlimited stamina with a combo of talents and armor)

Other problem i think is happening is that pets dont seem to sprint while they are following you, the sprint speed seems to only be applied to mounts when you actually sprint while riding, if they are given the ability to sprint without spending stamina when they are far from you i think this would be solved (their speed can even be kept as is if they have a boost while far from you)

and since we are talking about movement, i would rather have a good AI and no teleports than having pets teleporting around

27 Oct, '25
Will

improving the pathing AI for pets brought down from he orbital exchange and tamed mounts so they are not just running in a straight line towards food/water and getting stuck because they wont go around a wall or placed object even though the can (and did) would greatly improve the user experience and potential usability

29 Oct, '25
Rayven

https://youtu.be/N5DZ_hbhx0k

Proof that it needs fixing, this shouldn't even be a thing.

30 Oct, '25
Eventide

Tames set to Approach - approach the player to zero, crowding and potentially blocking the player and/or mount from moving. Consider adding a 'collision' sphere that's 0.5 - 1 meter around the player/mount, just for Tames, to prevent this.

Tames set to approach frequently get stuck on small obstacles. Consider some checks for "are we there yet?" and if no progress in (time period) back up 1m at an angle like 45 degrees off the direct line to player, in hopes the new line of approach will miss the small obstacle.

30 Oct, '25
Rayven

https://youtu.be/N5DZ_hbhx0k short video of something that shouldn't be the case

31 Oct, '25
Eventide

I saw a Rimetusk slowly work around an obstacle by backing up a bit and trying again, over and over until it finally succeeded. It seems like the pathfinding routine 'tries harder' if the actor is in an aggressive state, but Tames trying to follow the player don't have that 'incentive' - if it can be described as such.

18 Nov, '25
LM Icarus

It would also be nice if the animals would stay put if they are not on follow. Almost every time I come back from a mission a cow or chicken falls from the sky as well as other animals. It takes a lot of time getting them ack.

23 Nov, '25
Piikaabee

I'm not sure if this is thie right thread for this as it kinda has to do with both multiplayer and the animal tamed AI tracking.

In multiplayer when other players tame the animal;
I am NOT the host.
This is in a private game session.

ex) I raised and tamed and claimed a Terranus.

But when i do my options for owning him like "follow" it will only follow the host. So it ran and teleported to host on the other side of the map on me when i wanted it to hunt with me....
If I'm riding the mount or using stay and lay down options, its fine but it will then again find the host when it follows.

17 Dec, '25
Eventide

Re-emphasizing Robert's final concern from 05 September: Tames and Mounts should pause their ai (stop moving) when player interacts with them, OR once a player has opened an actor's UI, the distance it can move from controlling player and amount of time the actor's control UI can remain open when out of this range, should be increased 4x.

28 Dec, '25
James

Tamed creatures BADLY need to teleport more often, and better detect when they're stuck. I've lost so many wolves due to them getting barely stuck behind a small rock or tree and I didn't notice for some 30 seconds. It's currently very stressful trying to use pets.

In addition, I'd recommend some kind of whistle to auto summon things on follow, as exists in most other games with tamed pets.

31 Dec, '25
Jordan Davis

the animals are kind of dumb

15 Jan
Leonard

Our Tames should path to use gates and doors. I am tired of bringing a new animal to be tamed, I go to open the gate and the new animal or my tame will run around to the wall closer to the food trough and repeatedly run into the spikes on the wall until it is dead. It should see the gate or door right in front of it and wait until it is open. Not run away to kill itself on a spiked wall.

18 Jan
Kevin

A number of good ideas here that I like. Perhaps it is possible to start with No-Path collision frames around base defenses that tames could "see" so they don't die on the spikes. Also, perhaps start by only adding block detection onto tames that are in follow mode or within 20 meters of the player. As an optimization for full pathing, perhaps turn on pathing for all animals within eyesight of the player (if players can't see it, then it won't look stupid, yes?) It might be fine to use straight-line pathing when players are not around and the tame isn't on follow mode. I'll admit it's not a trivial task. Laying down a pathing network that matches the terrain then periodically updating it as rocks and trees are destroyed and respawn sounds like lots of work. Perhaps have the server only update the pathing network in areas where players have visited recently.

21 Jan
Rob

https://icarus.featureupvote.com/suggestions/663488/comment/759478#comment759478

Tames not only keep impaling themselves on the fortifications, but also walking from cliffs falling to their dead or walking into lava and burn.

All animals in icarus should be smart enough not to hurt/kill themselves not just tames and mounts.
Only humans intentionally hurt or kill themselves, animals need to be seriously scared/angered/frenzied before they would do that.

30 Jan
M

It is incredibly frustrating finding a place in a house or barn that isn't just a fully enclosed rectangle to put food and water in such a way that the mounts won't get blocked from it when left to their own devices. They will try to walk directly through walls and windows, furniture and closed doors. Worst of all is when you try to have a tame/pet in a multi-story house because no matter what you do with the food and water it doesn't work. If set to wander they will inevitably end up beneath it or above it on a different level but they have no concept of the vertical axis so they just stand there on the floor below/above where the food bowl is and bark and don't move cause they see themselves as on top of the food.

I love ranching and base building they're my two favorite parts of the game but this is honestly ruining it for me, I can't build the base designs I want because any sort of irregular shape or even just a second story is fundamentally incompatible with the animal pathing.

21 Feb
Sam Merged

I was by the minefield triggering landmines with sticks, when a dreadwing attacked my mount and then flew over the fenced-in camp. My mount then ran over to the fence to follow the dreadwing and kept ramming itself into the hedgehog there until it died (I couldn't chase after it to stop it because...minefield). Please either make the mount immune to hedgehogs or have them avoid them.

21 Feb
alfblack Merged

I was told to post in #bugreport which forwared me to this website.

An observation.

I have a large group of warthhogs and wolves. I usually let them wander outside the house but inside the big wall with gates open. They are set to agressive so when a agro mob nears. They charge at them to defend the home (its awsome). But after the update. I observe that the pathfinding seems dumber now. They cant figure out how to go out to attack the agro mobs - They get stuck in walls. (they did fine before). I see them stuck inside my house thirsty and hungry. First time I had to craft a leash.

On a bright note. I do feel performance has been boosted.

Im just reporting my observation.