Tell Me What's Obstructing the Water Tool

thekay72 · Apr 13, 2020

I've been trying to play more with the water tool and I'm getting endlessly frustrated trying to make water features that fit inside habitats and can be navigated.
I spent a solid hour trying to make a pool for my monitor lizards just a little bigger, but when I went to replace the water, I could no longer fill it to the height it was at before and I just ended up making it worse, even though all I did was use the sculpting stamp to push out one edge to the same depth as the rest of the pool.
No matter what I did it told me it was obstructed. I moved the cursor around the entire pool and it all seemed fine to me based on the waterline, but no, apparently I couldn't place water at that height. I would really like it if the game told me what was obstructing the water from being filled to whatever height I want.

Adarra · Apr 13, 2020

Oh please YES. I've had this issue today and I just couldn't figure out why I couldn't fill a small pond with water, so I ended up completely abandoning the idea of having a pond in that corner and placed it somewhere else. It's incredibly frustrating to not know what's causing the obstruction!

Jileha · Apr 13, 2020

There might be a conflict with the barrier and the water. Try moving your animals out of the habitat, deleting the habitat gate, do whatever work you need to do in your habitat and refill the water. Then replace the door and the animals. Make sure you reassign the ”new” habitat to its old work zone. That might work.

felinora99 · Apr 13, 2020

Yes, it would be sooo useful ! I am working with water to have a south America jungle zoo, and I spent hours trying to understand why my river was "obstructed" (on a new map so no animals, no barrier)

Jileha · Apr 13, 2020

felinora99 said:
Yes, it would be sooo useful ! I am working with water to have a south America jungle zoo, and I spent hours trying to understand why my river was "obstructed" (on a new map so no animals, no barrier)

In what way was it obstructed? The water level? Check out a tutorial by Rudi Rennkamel on YouTube where he sheds some light on the quirkiness of placing water in PZ.

PeppyPepp · Apr 14, 2020

This is one of my issues with the game. It's says "obstructed" but it doesn't tell you what's obstructing it.

ShadowLilly · Apr 14, 2020

PeppyPepp said:
This is one of my issues with the game. It's says "obstructed" but it doesn't tell you what's obstructing it.

Anything that is in the water ( animals, plants, buildingpieces etc). If i remove that i can place water again

LN · Apr 14, 2020

What's blocking water placement?

Animals
paths

That's it.

felinora99 · Apr 14, 2020

Luuknoord said:
What's blocking water placement?

Animals

paths

That's it.

And yet I had water "obstructed" in a zoo where there was not a single animal nor the slightest bit of path.

My issue was that the map was not flat, and thus the beginning of my river was higher than then end of it, so I had to elevate the ground a lot at the end of my river and put little mountains around

LN · Apr 14, 2020

felinora99 said:
And yet I had water "obstructed" in a zoo where there was not a single animal nor the slightest bit of path.

My issue was that the map was not flat, and thus the beginning of my river was higher than then end of it, so I had to elevate the ground a lot at the end of my river and put little mountains around

Which in return would be a problem, because there is probably a piece of path somewhere where you wanted to place the water which obstructs it because you actually without knowing, tried to flood the entire map.

felinora99 · Apr 14, 2020

Luuknoord said:
Which in return would be a problem, because there is probably a piece of path somewhere where you wanted to place the water which obstructs it.

I might have misunderstood your answer ? It was a new zoo, there was no piece of path at all. The issue was with the new map, so it was up the mountain, and with the hill it would have led to unending water everywhere (as water in pz must be flat). So no path issue, as even the flood would have not reached the entrance, which is elevated. The third issue with water is "infinite water", we can't make a fall out of the water tool, we have to use the animations, because water must be stagnant in pz.

And maybe there are some other "obstructing issue" that we didn't met yet, but it would be useful if the game could tell us "infinite water, it's impossible" or "path blocking the water"

LN · Apr 14, 2020

No, we are clearly on the same case

If this happens ("and with the hill it would have led to unending water everywhere"), it would probably flood the path that is connected to the entrance (where guests spawn).

And yes, there is nothing more that obstructs water. It is paths and animals.
Water is stagnant because that's the way they designed it. That's why you get "special effects" to make waterfalls etc.

Adarra · Apr 14, 2020

Jileha said:
There might be a conflict with the barrier and the water. Try moving your animals out of the habitat, deleting the habitat gate, do whatever work you need to do in your habitat and refill the water. Then replace the door and the animals. Make sure you reassign the ”new” habitat to its old work zone. That might work.

But that's the thing: you shouldn't HAVE to go through all that trouble just to figure out what is obstructing the placement of water.

Luuknoord said:
And yes, there is nothing more that obstructs water. It is paths and animals.

But which path is it? And where along the path is the problem? I get that it's either animals or paths (or both), but wouldn't it be far more convenient for us to actually know which part of the path or what animal or barrier (because barriers can cause problems as well) is causing the problem? That's all the OP (and I) want.

felinora99 · Apr 15, 2020

Adarra said:
But that's the thing: you shouldn't HAVE to go through all that trouble just to figure out what is obstructing the placement of water.

But which path is it? And where along the path is the problem? I get that it's either animals or paths (or both), but wouldn't it be far more convenient for us to actually know which part of the path or what animal or barrier (because barriers can cause problems as well) is causing the problem? That's all the OP (and I) want.

That was my point, that Luuknord completely refused : it can also be an issue with water that would fall at some other place (if you try to put water on top of a hill and you didn't realise that there is a tiny part that isn't high enough, you can't place water because it would fall at some other place, no matter path or animal, water is supposed to stay where you put it)

And indeed, it won't prevent those who don't care from playing if there was some explanations for us !

Dinocanid · Apr 15, 2020

I just encountered this issue the other day and wished whatever was causing the problem was highlighted. I had emptied my nile monitor pond to make it larger for all the babies in there, and it would not let me place the water again. I moved all the animals away, deleted trees, raised rocks, everything. I couldn't place the water again unless I completely flattened the area, dug the hole again, and then placed the water.

LN · Apr 15, 2020

Adarra said:
But which path is it? And where along the path is the problem? I get that it's either animals or paths (or both), but wouldn't it be far more convenient for us to actually know which part of the path or what animal or barrier (because barriers can cause problems as well) is causing the problem? That's all the OP (and I) want.

Follow the red line along the coast line of your water area. I'm sure you'll see soon enough which path it is.

felinora99 said:
That was my point, that Luuknord completely refused : it can also be an issue with water that would fall at some other place (if you try to put water on top of a hill and you didn't realise that there is a tiny part that isn't high enough, you can't place water because it would fall at some other place, no matter path or animal, water is supposed to stay where you put it)

And indeed, it won't prevent those who don't care from playing if there was some explanations for us !

You do know, we are actually telling the same thing?
I guess this is a linguistic thing.

Paths and animals, that's all you need to remember.

If you can't place it, because there is a gap somewhere and it would mean you are about to fill the entire map. Then paths are the problem. Because there is a path at the entrance that would be blocking that. I'm not sure how to explain this better.

But If you want, ignore what I say and think of it whatever you want.

Adarra · Apr 15, 2020

Luuknoord said:
Follow the red line along the coast line of your water area. I'm sure you'll see soon enough which path it is.

Again, that's all fine and well, but it'd be more convenient if the message actually told you/pointed out where the problem is located. It would save (quite a lot of) time and frustration if the game could do that. I get that you're trying to help, but the way you're doing it isn't really helpful, especially since you're essentially telling the OP (and others) that the way the obstruction notification works is fine as it is. All we're doing is pointing out that it should be more helpful instead of 'well, sorry, but you're going to have to figure out what the problem is all on your own, no matter how long it takes'. And trust me, just 'following the red line'? Doesn't always work or help, because sometimes it's the barrier. Or it's a (practically invisible) small piece of ground that you overlooked, or sometimes it just comes down to not just deleting the path but the whole enclosure and starting over because the problem can't be pinned down.

LN · Apr 15, 2020

I agree, but there is no more convenient way.

All in all the OP asked what is blocking water, it's not that much, so it shouldn't be too much effort to find the reason.
Especially if you know what could be the issue:

Paths
Animals
Barriers (I forgot this one).

NL_Mutso · Apr 15, 2020

I think screenshots are more useful in these situations.

This is basically guessing what could be wrong. (paths/animals/barriers/foilage/other elevations conflicting with the this one)

felinora99 · Apr 15, 2020

Luuknoord said:
Then paths are the problem. Because there is a path at the entrance that would be blocking that. I'm not sure how to explain this better.

T.T No we are not saying the same thing. Maybe it is indeed a linguistic problem, but what I am trying to explain is that in my case, water couldn't reach the path at the entrance. Like, imagine in terms of level (the higher the number, the higher it is located) : path of the entrance was at level 10. The higher point of water was at point 7, and I was trying (not intentionnaly) to make it flood until level 2. So the path of the entrance was never an issue, because water at its highest level would have been at level 7, which is much under the path.

I tried to draw it on paint (it really is bad, but I hope it makes more sense than my words). The path draw was the only path on the whole map (as it was a new one)