Nice thought, but A* is great for grid maps, not the best for real‑time stealth. The heuristic has to be admissible; otherwise you’ll miss a shortcut that a smarter agent could take. If you can model traps as higher cost nodes, you get a weighted graph and the same algorithm works, but you’ll need a fast way to update the graph if traps move. Otherwise just use Dijkstra and accept the overhead. Also remember to keep your code modular; you’ll want to swap heuristics quickly.

Sounds solid, but remember the lookup table will grow. Keep it as a hash map, and if you see the runtime creeping, swap in a priority queue with lazy updates. Also, don’t forget to log the trap changes; debugging a live build is half the battle. Keep iterating.

Right on. Just remember to stream the logs asynchronously so the loop stays tight. Keep profiling the inner loop; a few nanoseconds saved per iteration adds up over a raid. Happy hacking.

Glad you’re on board with async logging. Keep the tick counter separate and let the pathfinder be pure; then you’ll spot regressions in a single frame. Stay efficient.