Question: anyone else having problems with placement of habitat objects and flatten terrain?

[KhemKat]

Hopped into the game tonight for a bit and noticed a new (?) problem with placing habitat items (bedding, enrichment, etc.). It's been a bit since I last played, so maybe this isn't actually new, but does anyone else have trouble with habitat items flattening the terrain around them even with "flatten terrain" off? Last time I played (a couple/few weeks ago I think), I was able to place an enrichment item nice and flush with a terrain cave, no problem. Now when I place it the terrain flattens and destroys my cave no matter what setting I have it on. I tried both with flatten terrain checked and unchecked, same behavior for both.
Just wondering if anyone else has experienced this!

 

[P3NGU1N]

Sure have. The game automatically places a flattened circle around anything. It's been like this for awhile now but I'm also sure there was a time it didn't.

 

[marcnesiumHH]

Hopped into the game tonight for a bit and noticed a new (?) problem with placing habitat items (bedding, enrichment, etc.). It's been a bit since I last played, so maybe this isn't actually new, but does anyone else have trouble with habitat items flattening the terrain around them even with "flatten terrain" off? Last time I played (a couple/few weeks ago I think), I was able to place an enrichment item nice and flush with a terrain cave, no problem. Now when I place it the terrain flattens and destroys my cave no matter what setting I have it on. I tried both with flatten terrain checked and unchecked, same behavior for both.
Just wondering if anyone else has experienced this!

Sure.
My best guess is that this is done for the game being able to execute the animations related to the specific enrichment item.

 

[Jaggid Edje]

Depends on the item being placed. Some of the things, like bedding and the water pipe, have a flatten circle around them when placed even with it off, but many other things do not. Pretty sure it has to do with game animations and accessibility...it flattens enough to make sure the items actually will work.

I make a lot of caves using the terrain tools for hard shelters, and take advantage of the way bedding flattens terrain to help expand out the inside of the caves. Knowing it is going to happen lets me be a little lazy in the initial creation phase. lol

 

[Monsarona]

I believe this is intended. I actually use this mechanic in career scenarios where you are restricted from terrain tools to get around this restriction. I use the straw bedding pieces and lower them into the ground so that the ground flattens around it creating a hole so that I can fill it with water (if water is available in that scenario).

 

[P3NGU1N]

I believe this is intended. I actually use this mechanic in career scenarios where you are restricted from terrain tools to get around this restriction. I use the straw bedding pieces and lower them into the ground so that the ground flattens around it creating a hole so that I can fill it with water (if water is available in that scenario).

lol, I remember that when I did the Maple Leaf park scenario. Terrain disabled? We'll see about that.

 

[iloveyourzoos]

I recently discovered that for some of the enrichment items, how much terrain gets flattened can actually be set by going into the Terrain tool (like where you paint), and decreasing the size and intensity (down to 1 and 10%). Not sure if it works on every enrichment item, but it has saved my lot of time, since I play in franchise and usually sculpt my hills/mountains/caves first before I place the animals, and then add enrichment items as the research gets done. Meaning that the enrichments are always messing up my masterpieces!

(Apologies to any advanced builders if this is obvious to you. Since it's not in the same tab, I only discovered this quite by accident, because I happened to be building a huge cavern and had set my terrain settings way up, and then noticed that the enrichment items were acting different than usual afterward. Now I'm wondering what other things it might apply to or help with.... flattening terrain for paths or even barriers?)