ID:155527
 
"Move Ref on a path to the location Trg, taking obstacles into account. If Ref is within Min steps of Trg, no action will be taken. This is also the case if the target is too far away (more than twice world.view steps).



Is there any feasible way to overwrite this, or simply stop it from happening, without having to write my own pathfinding system? I want something from point A to point B to path very long distances, I'm talking about probably hundreds of tiles.

To picture a scenario; say a scout was leaving his HQ/nest/hive to gather intel from the surrounding area. We assume the map is at least 1000x1000 tiles big. The scout will wander around while gathering notes on any resources it passes by, etc. When the scout's note bank is "full", it will return home to dump its notes and start the process again. The thing is, more than likely the scout is going to end up very far away from home, and because of step_to()'s limitations this is impossible.

Is this possible or should I start writing up a feature request?

Would it be possible at all to implement some kind of "checkpoint" system as a work-around? Break down the line between A and B into two or more chunks (as required).
In response to Spunky_Girl
I guess it would be, yes. The way this could work would be some kind of "breadcrumbs" system where the game would place a breadcrumb every 50 or so tiles an NPC travels. When an NPC wants to go back, it simply retraces the breadcrumbs so that, eventually, the NPC is close enough to path back to HQ normally. However I don't know if this would be 100% bulletproof.
You could also use a pathfinding library. I know there are at least 2 around here.

Also, 1000 x 1000 is a HUGE map (and you said that's the minimum). Such a large area will bring any pathfinder to its knees (even in other languages). Checkpoints may be the only feasible way to go, now that I think about it.
I haven't tried to develop anything for awhile, but since when BYOND allows bigger maps than 1000x1000?
In response to Zaoshi
As another post describes, 255x255 is the limit if you have an object on every tile because the compiler object limit is still ~65k whilst the runtime object limit was increased to ~16 million. However, if he uses instantiated object creation then a 1000x1000 tiled map is totally possible, albeit impractical.