February 13, 2026
Knights clump, comments thump
Age of Empires: 25 years of pathfinding problems with C++ [video]
Villagers still get stuck, fans split: “UserPatch rules” vs “DE finally fixed it”
TLDR: A new talk dives into 25 years of how Age of Empires units find their way, from old tricks to modern fixes. Fans immediately split: some crown the community UserPatch as the true king, while others say the Definitive Edition has finally caught up—sparking jokes, nostalgia, and a bug-or-feature cavalry debate.
Raymi Klingers’ new talk on 25 years of Age of Empires pathfinding sent fans straight down memory lane—and right into a comment brawl. The video breaks down how units learned to stop bonking into trees (sometimes), with slides here: slides.meetingcpp.com. But the crowd quickly turned the spotlight on the real question: which version actually walks the walk?
One camp, led by a triumphant superkuh, swears the old community “UserPatch” on Voobly—the fan-powered online service before Microsoft’s big Definitive Edition comeback—“remains the best in important ways.” Translation: the modders did it first, better, and lighter. The DE defenders clap back that the modern remaster has now reached near-parity and uses fewer resources. Cue the drama: nostalgia vs. new polish, grassroots cred vs. official patch pride.
Meanwhile, LPisGood tossed in a spicy curveball: in Age of Empires 3, cavalry “clumping” looked messy but could be used tactically—so is it a bug or a feature? The crowd split between “realistic battlefield chaos” and “please, my knights are glued together.” Others loved the peek behind the curtain: as jstrebel put it, games look glamorous, but under the hood they’re just software, with devs pragmatically rolling their own solutions instead of worshipping textbooks.
Amid jokes about villagers needing GPS and “clump micro,” one viewer even asked if the source code is public—proof that after 25 years, pathfinding remains the real final boss. The only thing more winding than the unit routes? The comments.
Key Points
- •The video is a Meeting C++ 2025 talk by Raymi Klingers.
- •It covers how pathfinding has been implemented in games like Age of Empires over 25+ years.
- •The focus is on C++ approaches to pathfinding in game development.
- •Slides for the talk are available at slides.meetingcpp.com.
- •The video duration is approximately 1 hour (1:00:08) and is hosted by the Meeting Cpp channel.