Deterministic Pathfinding/Movement

General
1

Hi Aron! I am making a deterministic lockstep multiplayer RTS. I was thinking about moving back to your project after using others for a few years.

A few questions for you! I saw this was somewhat answered here but would love a bit of an update if that’s ok? Deterministic for multiplayer rts? - #2 by aron_granberg

Question 1: Is pathfinding or movement deterministic?
Question 2: If not, which parts aren’t? Have you seen it modified successfully before?
Question 3: What’s the easiest path to modify A*?

Thanks so much and keep up the great work!
Dan

2
  1. Pathfinding is deterministic (assuming you call it the same on every client). Movement depends on the frame rate of the game, so it’s not. It doesn’t have any other randomness, though.
  2. I’d recommend using a leader/follower architecture, as that will be much more robust. Having deterministic lockstep requires VERY strong guarantees on every part of the movement code.
  3. Not quite sure what you mean by that.