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TL;DR Read the paragraph below the flashy lights. The rest is just explanation and comments This is... what.... sixtuple posting? Oh well. But: I now have a theory for what causes Idleness Syndrome! My theory is that each frame the pathfinding algorithm tries to make a path for absolutely every conceivable task that needs to be done on the map (as we know "move to X" is a different task to "pick up X;" that in itself explains a lot of things) However, if this takes too long due to too many RRs or too many pieces of ore on the map, the game can't complete all the pathfinding before the next frame occurs and it has to start over again. Which it will never finish. Etcetera... This explains: - why Idleness Syndrome only affects some RRs (the algorithm can complete everything for some RRs but not others before it has to restart) - why it is more frequent with resources on map and raider count - why it goes up with map size (=> more the pathfinding algorithm has to crunch through) - the relation between the NERPs, framerate, and the game - why if there is nothing to do and something becomes available, LRRs will immediately run off quite literally the frame it becomes available; it makes sense that the game checks for tasks to do every frame - why the things we do to reduce Idleness Syndrome work (less raiders / less resources / smaller map size) This does not explain: - why vehicles are unaffected (however as evidence by Disappearing Raiders, vehicles are clearly something different...) - Separation Anxiety, which is a less severe form of Idleness Syndrome that occurs when you have two bases crossed by an inaccessible rift (eg Fire 'n' Water, if you don't teleport up your base on the first side before building a second) - lag that occurs due to pathfinding reported previously in this thread (but keep in mind this is very rare) This may be a bad idea because: - one would think the game would wait for the pathfinding and task assignment algorithm to finish before advancing to the next frame - one would think the pathfinding algorithm would only generate a path for the first raider to do the first task, second raider to do the second task, third raider to do the third task, etcetera; as opposed to all paths for the first raider, all paths for the second raider, all paths for the third raider This may be a good idea because: - the game clearly has no "do close tasks" prioritization but it is possible that attempts at implementing this were made; the only way to know which is the closest task is to check the distance for all the tasks and check, which requires generating paths for all tasks; the distance check clearly isn't implemented but we know that the last 72 hours of development were spent between the devs and the QA team; the QA team would find a game-breaking bug and the devs would fix it, rinse and repeat for 72 hours before launch; so it's probable to me that something like the lack of a distance check just got put by the wayside