better bot pathfinding

[valor1]

I'm trying to get bots to move to one location but they just keep running into walls and other things that get in the way. Is there a way to check if a bot is stuck and force them to take a different path?

This is the code I'm using:

local rePathDelay = 1 // How many seconds need to pass before we need to remake the path to keep it updated
hook.Add( "StartCommand", "astar_example", function( ply, cmd )
 if ( !ply:IsBot() || GetConVarNumber( "bot_mimic" ) != 0 ) then return end
 cmd:ClearButtons()
 cmd:ClearMovement()
 local currentArea = navmesh.GetNearestNavArea( ply:GetPos() )
 // internal variable to regenerate the path every X seconds to keep the pace with the target player
 ply.lastRePath = ply.lastRePath or 0
 // internal variable to limit how often the path can be ( re )generated
 ply.lastRePath2 = ply.lastRePath2 or 0

 if ( ply.path && ply.lastRePath + rePathDelay < CurTime() && currentArea != ply.targetArea ) then
  ply.path = nil
  ply.lastRePath = CurTime()
 end

 if ( !ply.path && ply.lastRePath2 + rePathDelay < CurTime() ) then
  local targetPos = Vector( -420.171509, 2783.729980, 194.142242 )  // target position to go to, the first player on the server
  local targetArea = navmesh.GetNearestNavArea( targetPos )
  ply.targetArea = nil
  ply.path = Astar( currentArea, targetArea )
  if ( !istable( ply.path ) ) then // We are in the same area as the target, or we can't navigate to the target
   ply.path = nil // Clear the path, bail and try again next time
   ply.lastRePath2 = CurTime()
   return
  end
  table.remove( ply.path ) // Just for this example, remove the starting area, we are already in it!
 end
 // We have no path, or its empty ( we arrived at the goal ), try to get a new path.
 if ( !ply.path || #ply.path < 1 ) then
  ply.path = nil
  ply.targetArea = nil
  return
 end
 // Select the next area we want to go into
 if ( !IsValid( ply.targetArea ) ) then
  ply.targetArea = ply.path[ #ply.path ]
 end
 // We got the target to go to, aim there and MOVE
 local targetang = ( ply.targetArea:GetCenter() - ply:GetPos() ):GetNormalized():Angle()
 cmd:SetViewAngles( targetang )
 cmd:SetForwardMove( 1000 )

end )

[valor1]

I ended up just doing this:

  timer.Simple( 5, function() targetPos = Vector(VectorRand() *math.random(-10000,10000), VectorRand() *math.random(-10000,10000), VectorRand() *math.random(-10000,10000))
targetArea = navmesh.GetNearestNavArea( targetPos )
  end)

  ply.path = Astar( currentArea, targetArea )
It sets the bot's path to a random point ever 10 seconds so even if it does get stuck it will get out of it hopefully every 10 seconds. Not a perfect solution but it works for me