[CaptainHaplo]

Skybird - let me see if this analogy helps...

You have 2 people. One is told to follow the other. This works fine.

You have 4 people. Three are told to follow the 4th. The three do not communicate. They thus either:

A) bump into each other and surrounding obstacles as each tries to be following the first person to the exclusion of the others

or

B) They keep one eye on who they follow and one eye on the others - meaning they now don't have time to look for all the terrain hazards.

Take your pick.
Now - as humans we can decide a "follow order" - choosing amongst ourselves who is going to "follow first". Such decisions are outside the scope of the "follow" command - because the gamer didn't tell player 4 to follow player 3 who follows player 2 who follows player one. Insert Walrus as player - and there you go. The gamer simply told unit 2/3/4 to follow unit 1. And they all do so - either tangling up in themselves because they were NOT told HOW to do it - or getting caught in the terrain while trying to be "first".

The complaint's your referencing amost all have to do with the same problem. Not pathfinding truly, but following. As Arcligh said - order a walrus across an island, and it will get there. Sure, it may not take the most ideal route, it may have to adjust on the fly a little. Oops - a hazard it didn't expect, so it backs up and turns and goes around it. How THAT is bad pathfinding I don't know. Is the admittedly "limited" AI supposed to know and see all navigation hazards at unlimited range?

The idea of a manta on autopilot just flying into a mountain? Really? I have never - from Beta 1 to patched release - seen anything like what you are describing. Could combat AI for manta's be tweaked? Sure. But I haven't ever seen a manta - on either "side" - just kamikaze into anything.
Having spend the hours of testing and then playing, I am going to say that is either a gross exaggeration that your repeating, or a fluke.

Regarding "following" - there is not a good way to tell your units to individually follow another. If you could chain the follow 4->3->2->1 then I suspect a lot of the issues would be solved by those players that want the AI to basically play the game for them.

Actual pathfinding has a few bumps, mainly because the Walrus AI is unclear on what it can and cannot traverse reasonably. But the complaints regarding real pathfinding are rare. The "follow" pathfinding is the major gripe - and I don't see it as a real problem because its obvious WHY its a problem. Not a programming issue as much as laziness on the part of the player.

I respect you want to hold onto your money. So go try the free demo!
Free is good!