@RUMMAKER, programming is hard, but you should gain readiness to tackle new problems as you worked through a variety of past problems. And think about a* this way: it may have to check many cells (max: 50*40=2000). But this is only done to find a path, typically an Actor won't be calculating while traveling. So maybe your 200 Actors won't be trying to calculate a path at the same time. I never attempted to test the efficiency of the algorithm in terms of load. I used it in my Specter game and it seemed to not lag anything with a number of objects (probably < 50) in a relatively large area, while I think I had the objects recalculate path to the player when they reached halfway through their current calculated paths.

It is indeed my big project that is nearly ready. The code will unlock something in it for you. The code will be different from that what it gave you now. And unique to you, more details when I upload my project.