Perhaps let players configure some number such that the game will never plot a path for your character longer than that without first getting your confirmation.
"The path you've chosen is longer than N steps, are you sure?"
And then I also feel this needs to be very easily toggleable. Like a persistent UI button. I'd have it on when exploring and off when backtracking, and those two activities are back and forth all game.
Relevant screenshot below. The entire level is explored, and this damn piece of grass sent my character haywire then I trapped at the X. This kind of thing has happened to me on much later levels and messed me up good.
In the Depths, I would set this number to something like 2 for safety. I can't count how many times a misstap has gotten me zapped, chased, and then pincer-attacked by some second enemy in the room behind me. But then I'd want to toggle it off to run back to an alchemy pot or whatever.
I hate to be that guy, but just... remember how to move and where to click in these situations. It happened a few times to me also, but I view it as my fault, same with misclicking on the message about falling, same with setting myself on fire with WoFireblast and plethora of other mishaps. Also, assuming your "safe way/distance" is set to ~5, it would get kinda tedious when you need to traverse a lot of space. Throw two enemies in the way, and suddenly you have three message boxes to click through. In a short time, you would develop a habit of just clicking them off as quickly as possible, not paying much attention to them, which would result in the same problem.
That advice doesn't help when I didn't see the dark tile, or notice the trap in the narrow corridor.
The game is about making decisions and then living by them. Tapping and auto-pathing are a huge part of the game. You express intent by tapping, and the game makes all of the microdecisions for you instead of making you move tile by tile. You're giving up the decision-making to a pathing algorithm. When the game horribly misunderstands your intent and starts walking you in the opposite direction, it's not part of the challenge or fun. It's a flaw. The autopathing needs a reality check to avoid making the game unfun.
Which is why I said it would need a quick toggle.
I don't understand this. Please explain. An enemy can block a narrow corridor, sure, but you would only ever get one popup per tap. And if weird stuff is happening I would just toggle it off and make safe tile-by-tile moves as normal.
Or it could work just like the "keep going" arrow works today if you take damage while moving. You tap the arrow to continue. It doesn't even have to be a pop-up. It can be a simple pause, like when taking damage, while also displaying the reason for pausing, and then you tap the "continue" arrow. If you see a monster or take damage after having pressed the continue arrow for walking a large distance, then you have to press it again. That's exactly how it works today. The only difference is the very first movement tap might itself require pressing the arrow.
It only needs to warn you of enormous movements. If you tap 5 tiles away but it calculates a 60 turn movement path, something is clearly wrong. It can be coded to look at the ratio of the tap distance to the walking distance, and even then only if its a large absolute distance. Not, for instance, when it calculates a 10 step path for a tap 2 tiles away. Sure, that's a 5 to 1 ratio, but the movement is entirely within one screen, and those kinds of movements are normal in the maze-like rooms.
I disagree about the last part. Especially if the popup had an obvious number in it. You glance at the number, and if it says "50" you stop and take a look to see what went wrong. But I don't think a popup is really needed. Something simpler like I said above could work.
Toggles are a way to end with cluttered screens and an unpleasant visual experience of the game. It's a lazy solution. I really like your idea that doesn't use the toggle, and works similarly to the continue button. It could be set for a specific distance ratio by default, not bothering new players (eg. without needing more setup).
To the point with enemies I made is solved by ratio of direct distance:planned distance, so I won't bother 😆.
I agree with your points and I get why you would want the system in the game, but nonetheless, I just prefer to suffer ig :D. I view the pathfinding algorithm as a tool that I need to learn how to use 🤷, and the occasional hurdles are a part of the system. Idk, maybe I'm the only one that is weird in this way.