Pathfinding in SimCity is a disaster right now with extremely basic behaviours causing some very weird problems. Maxis’ Lead Gameplay Scripter Guillaume Pierre says they’re looking into it.
As it stands each Sim looks to find whatever it is they want via the shortest route possible. Makes sense? Of course - except this is a city and nothing is ever that simple.
A number of videos have been posted online exposing the quirky nature of SimCity’s pathfinding hilarity and outright frustration. These include vehicles and even pedestrians caught in near endless loops, vacant buses and streetcars blazing past transit stops and garbage trucks doing little.
Guillaume Pierre addresses streetcars in his blog post and explains why they behave the way that they do, saying the team will likely need to code in ”high priority” calculations so they prioritise stops overflowing with Sims. ”We’re looking into various ways to improve the situation so traffic will spread out better,” he said.
Until these pathfinding woes are tackled there’s going to be a lot of fires raging unchecked, injuries and sickness untreated and criminals left to spree as city services get tangled up in gridlock.