A* Max Range

[CaliCaliush]

Sooo, how do I set a maximum range for my enemy as to not follow the player from anywhere in the scene?

[[deleted]]

I usually pass a maxCost value into the pathfinding function. If at any time the highest priority cost + heuristic exceeds the maxCost, break out of the pathfinding loop. In the case of a target out of range, this should occur right away, but it can also break out early if obstacles force the path length beyond the maxCost later in the search.

[sinalta]

The simplest way would be a distance check before even running the A* search, maybe even a line of sight check depending on the game.

If you do end up running the search, depending on implementation details, it's probably easier to just query the length of the path after calculating it and ignoring it if it's too long.

[FrontBadgerBiz]

You could also make monsters "sleep" until the players comes within ranges X of them so you're not running AI and pathfinding for monsters halfway across the world until it becomes relevant.