Enhanced-Pathfinding-System

Enhanced Pathfinding System replaces the vanilla guest navigation with a smarter A* pathfinding algorithm. The plugin analyzes your entire park layout at load time, identifying paths, rides, shops, entrances, and dead ends. When guests become genuinely lost, it guides them toward attractions—not back to the exit.

Unlike aggressive pathfinding mods that constantly redirect guests, this plugin waits patiently. It only intervenes when a guest has been stuck for an extended period and is far enough from the entrance to rule out normal entry behavior. This prevents the frustrating issue of guests leaving immediately after entering your park.

The plugin is built for performance. All map data is precomputed and cached. Path preferences like "avoid dead ends" and "prefer wide paths" cost virtually nothing at runtime because they're simple lookups, not calculations. A strict frame budget ensures the plugin never causes lag spikes, even in parks with thousands of guests.

🧠 Core Pathfinding Engine Feature Description A Algorithm* Optimal pathfinding with priority queue Path Caching LRU cache stores 500 computed paths Spatial Hash O(1) crowd density lookups Map Precomputation Analyzes entire map once at load

👥 Lost Guest Recovery Feature Description Smart Detection Only helps guests truly stuck (not just entering) Entrance Avoidance Never sends guests back toward entrance Minimum Wait Waits 100 ticks before intervening Ride Targeting Directs lost guests toward rides/shops, not random paths

🛤️ Path Preferences Feature Default Description Wide Paths ✅ ON Prefers wider paths for better flow No Dead Ends ✅ ON Avoids dead-end paths Scenic Routes ❌ OFF Optional: prefers paths near scenery

⚡ Performance Optimizations Feature Description Frame Budget 2ms max per tick (prevents lag) Adaptive Rate Auto-adjusts processing based on performance Chunked Analysis Map analyzed over multiple ticks Guest Batching Processes 3 guests per tick Crowd Map Caching Updates every 30 ticks, not every tick

📊 Map Analysis Data Collected Purpose Entrances Avoid sending guests back to exit Rides Target destinations for lost guests Shops/Facilities Alternative destinations Path Widths Prefer wider paths Dead Ends Avoid routing into dead ends Scenery Optional scenic route scoring

🎛️ Configurable Settings Setting Range Default Min Ticks Before Help 25-500 100 Entrance Avoid Radius 5-50 tiles 15 Frame Budget 0.5-10ms 2.0ms Update Interval 5-60 ticks 10 Max Search Nodes 250-5000 1500