Anyone having flattened terrain when placing objects down

[HeatherG]

Ever since the last update when I place items from Nature or Habitat the terrain gets flattened even when I don't have it checked off.
It's not very attractive when it does this, does anyone else have this issue?
Thanks!

 

[SalamAnders]

I have always had this issue with enrichment items, but kind of assumed it had to be like that

 

[HeatherG]

Really? that's interesting!
It's only been happening in the last week for me.

 

[sockeyejo]

Yes, drove me up the wall. There's something in the main settings I changed that sorted it. Can't remember what it is but it's at the top of the list. I'll have a look once I've loaded the game and let you know what.

 

[sockeyejo]

Yes, drove me up the wall. There's something in the main settings I changed that sorted it. Can't remember what it is but it's at the top of the list. I'll have a look once I've loaded the game and let you know what.

Global vertical settings - I disabled it and the terrain flattening went away.

 

[HeatherG]

Global vertical settings - I disabled it and the terrain flattening went away.

I'll definitely look at that when I go into the game next.
Thank you @sockeyejo

 

[sockeyejo]

I'll definitely look at that when I go into the game next.
Thank you @sockeyejo

No probs

 

[XT]

It'll stop flattening for everything except enrichment items. I've not found a way to keep that from messing up your terrain.

 

[[VR] Deggial]

I always thought, the flattening is necessary for the enrichment item animations to play out without glitches.
Is this wrong?

 

[GRAMPERS62]

Yes, habitat items always flatten terrain. Presumably to avoid interaction animation issues.

 

[HeatherG]

It's strange that it has only done this since the last update, for me. I did try the Vertical Snapping setting but that didn't seem to do the trick.

Pic 1: Tested it, by putting the Beaver enrichment down....

It creates a massive ditch behind it, when I clicked in place. The Elk enrichment item will be difficult to use as well.

 

[GRAMPERS62]

At the edge of the water the flatten terrain cannot modify the shoreline. In this picture the enrichment item was placed below the highest level of that shoreline which means the ground behind it was flattened to that level. The real error part is that the game should have given a cannot modify terrain warning.

 

[Laura_91]

As said above im sure enrichment always did it. I dont remember seeing such a big area though but ive only used beaver one once

 

[WolfofAnarchy]

Enrichment items have always done this, at least for me, even with the toggle turned off. I've also seen it happen in videos, so I knew it wasn't just me, and I always assumed it was intended. It is incredibly annoying though, I agree. I'm not sure Frontier will change it, though, even if we open up a ticket.

 

[Sclurp]

I'm barging in to say enrichment items didn't always do this. You used to be able to put the scent markers under the ground without issue and now they'll dig out a chunk of terrain.

 

[WolfofAnarchy]

I'm barging in to say enrichment items didn't always do this. You used to be able to put the scent markers under the ground without issue and now they'll dig out a chunk of terrain.

Certain ones didn't you're right, but most of the bigger ones did. That said, I haven't noticed a change in any behavior like this in my game. It's hard to tell what's a bug and what isn't when people have been experiencing the game differently from the beginning.

 

[Lea_G]

There is definitely a problem with that. It did happen with some of the enrichment items all the time, but not to that extent, I believe. I first thought I messed up the settings, but I think that is not the reason. Yesterday I tried to place the new goat climbing item and it basically erased the whole mountain in the habitat.

 

[iloveyourzoos]

I have had this enrichment problem all along, at least for some of the enrichments. I set my global vertical settings to disabled long ago when I asked about this long ago (and just checked to see if they're still correct, which they are), but the problem has persisted for me through all the updates.

One thing to try -- which may just be a placebo effect -- is to go into terrain and paint it as rock, and then lower both your brush size and brush intensity in the terrain menu to the lowest amount. (and then make sure those settings get saved before opening the enrichment item tab). Again, this may just be a placebo, but I feel like for some of the items (not necessarily all), this has sometimes helped to at least decrease the amount of terrain impact they have. (You can of course go back and repaint the terrain the way you want it after you've placed the items!)

I've also noticed that as I move from biome to biome in different zoos, it feels like I notice the problem more often in some biomes than others. I'm not sure if this is biome specific exactly, or if it has to do with the heights or the basic soil types that underlie each biome. Or even if it's just that I'm keeping different animals in different zoos (and thus using different enrichment items). Or just that I'm starting from a flatter surface more often in some biomes than in others.