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[Duelmaster409]

I have a small little question; what happens if there are two or more paths to a certain location that have the exact same number of tiles in distance? Like so;

Code: [Select]

#########
#   @   #
#  ###  #
#  ###  #
##  +  ##
#########

Which path gets chosen? The left or right? We're assuming + is the start and @ is the finish, though it won't matter if they swap places.

[Untelligent]

Build a room like that, stick two doors that only open when a lever is pulled, drop a dwarf in there a whole bunch of times and find out.

[tfaal]

Alternatively, just build a structure like that into one of the hallways of your fortress, and see which way the dwarves go through; no levers needed.

[Duelmaster409]

Well if it was a hallway I'd just guess the side which has the least amount of traffic will get selected for use. It'll be tricky getting a dorf in the right spot when the door unlocks and he can go through.

[Urist Imiknorris]

I would assume they would go left in your example. Dwarves have a tendency to want to go to the top left corner of the map.

[Captain Hammer]

Build a room like that, stick two doors that only open when a lever is pulled, drop a dwarf in there a whole bunch of times and find out.

Spoken like a true dwarven scientist. Just add magma and you got yourself an experiment!

[Lemunde]

In situations like this there is always a default option, even if the programmer didn't mean to make one.  If the last path checked has the same length as the shortest path, it will either choose the last one or the shortest one, depending on the way the paths are compared.  It's always one or the other, never both.  Of course a clever programmer might choose to make it choose between the paths randomly but there really isn't much point.

[Noble Digger]

It took me about 2 minutes to make a room like that in my fort and try it out. I've seen lone dwarves choose either path, and if multiple dwarves are in this section at once, they will take opposite paths if necessary to avoid steping over each other. Sometimes, they will even go partly down one of the paths and then turn around and take the other path to avoid a dwarf in the original path.