So i have been messing around with MeshGenerator to try to get my puller to focus on pulling along certain paths to get to named. I was curious on how the weight distances(area types) apply to pulling. Does it take into consideration the weighted areas while pulling or does it simply just take actual nav distance?
I have been pulling in a zone with teirs and can only seem to get it to stop pulling the room directly above if i put not walkable area. So just trying to figure out if I'm wasting my time with this approach of pulling with weighted paths......
Without knowing what you are using to pull it's difficult to know how to assist with this question because it presents new questions that if left unanswered will only complicate the response.
The short answer is you need to limit the pulling z height to be below the room above you as the simplest method. CWTN Plugins has this option - but you don't appear to be using them.
While MQ2Nav is technically a 2d navigation, it takes slopes and step height into consideration on the ability to access specific areas. So depending on if the way up is a slope or a step you could make adjustments that would disallow access, but this is essentially the same thing as marking the area unwalkable, but it would potentially affect other areas of the zone as well.
Does MQ2Nav take the weight into account? Yes. It 100% does. Getting a path length is the same as generating a path because it can't know the length without first knowing what path it would take.
Weighted areas won't solve the issue you have with pulling because weighted doesn't mean can't go there, simply means you should avoid going there unless you have no choice (this is an over simplification).
Less simple: Consider an area with a weight of 20, and a 1:1 normal navigational area. For every 1 step in the weighted area it will need to be worth 20 steps in an unweighted area. If the destination is in the weighted area this simply means it will walk around the edge of the weighted area until it needs to walk into the weighted area, taking the shortest distance from the outside edge to the destination.
If you have a weighted area that looks like an 8, it's possible that it would prefer to cross in the middle of the 8 to get to the other side as opposed to walking all the way around, because if you need 2 steps at a weight of 20 to cross between the top and bottom of the 8 but it takes 80 steps to go all the way around then 40 steps is less than 80 steps and thus it would cut through the weighted area because it's less steps. So while having a weighted area can make it avoid going through it, if the path to go around is still greater, then it will still go through it. To fix this, you could simply assign an absurd weight to the avoidance volume to make it impossible to want to go into the area, but again this only applies to paths that will not end inside the weighted area because if it's the destination, eventually it must enter. Using a preferred path makes it 0.5 weight, meaning it takes two steps to make 1 normal step, and essentially doubles any weights around it. If you put a weighted area and then generated a preferred path inside of the avoidance it would prefer to take that path.
The only way to not go in an area is if the program doesn't tell it to go there (filter out the specific mob, z height, etc), or if you break the mesh's path using unwalkable. You don't need to make the entire area unwalkable, just seal it off from the rest of the mesh.
Again, the right way would be to limit your z axis as has been mentioned, because if the zheight from the camp location/starting point exceeds the limitation of the spawnsearch then it's not a valid pull target, and thus never telling nav you want to go there in the first place. So it's possible the tool you are using has this option built in somehow, or if you are the author of the tool you're using then it should be considered for addition to filter out things in areas above and below you. This will prevent modifying your mesh based on what camp you are in, and allow for modifications dynamically as your needs change.
