Climbing Platform Woes (IE: Screw Orangutans, man ><)

[Souldrake]

I am in the Career Mode at the Hiring Freeze map and just let me say Oh My Sweet Baby Pumpkinfarts... Needing to build a climbing tower for an orangutan right of the bat is a nightmare. How the heck is this climbable area calculated? I have platforms and logs all over the place and I'm nowhere near the 120 square meters needed for this thing.

Let me also take the time to point out that the "hitboxes" for clicking some items are ridiculous. Orangutan sitting on a rock? Nope, you're clicking that rock, the wall, everything else but you're not clicking that orangutan. Platform? Nope. Kaobab tree all the way. Can't click anything near it =/

Update 1: [Testing] Climbable platform 4m x 2m = 8 sq m. Contribution to climbing area = 0 sq m.
6m log. Contribution: 5.7 sq m.
Platforms contribute nothing to climbing area. Most space efficient way to build climbing space for orangutan? 6m pole forest. Sounds legit.

If this is working as intended, I would recommend changing it. It really rewards being super lazy instead of really building ellaborate climbing platforms. I was doing my best to create this super intricate system of platforms and logs and that and nothing.... The platforms just take up too much room to give 0 contribution to the space needed.

 

[Robbierotten]

Yeah...

I'm avoiding climbing animals, for now. Making climbable structures is ridiculously difficult. I make some structure with all kinds of climbable logs/platforms only to have it fulfill 0% of the climbing needs for the animal.

Plus climbing animals are constantly boxed whenever I place something inside a habitat. Just super frustrating.

 

[MsRedNebula]

Yeah, still trying to get a handle on climbing structures too. It seems like stuff that registers toward that "climbing area" stat has to be vertical or narrow; the flat platforms do basically nothing. My current theory is if the heatmap shows it in just green, it's counted toward the climbable space, but if it's both green and blue, it isn't. I had a lot of frustrations with this in the Ape-renticeship career mode map, had to look at the other exhibits and see how they were done before I finally made my poor chimps happy!

It does seem... if not buggy, then at least highly un-intuitive.

 

[Silhouette]

I mean... When you think about it, them walking/sitting on a flat surface such as the platforms does nothing for them, physically. They don't have to use their muscles any differently than they would if they were walking on the ground. Meanwhile logs, whether vertical or horizontal, actually would provide the apes with the stimulation they need to get their muscles working properly, and that's why that would contribute to climbing but not a bunch of flat platforms interconnected.

Is it explained well? No, but I think it also makes sense how its set up, if you think about it realistically.

 

[Souldrake]

I mean... When you think about it, them walking/sitting on a flat surface such as the platforms does nothing for them, physically. They don't have to use their muscles any differently than they would if they were walking on the ground. Meanwhile logs, whether vertical or horizontal, actually would provide the apes with the stimulation they need to get their muscles working properly, and that's why that would contribute to climbing but not a bunch of flat platforms interconnected.

Is it explained well? No, but I think it also makes sense how its set up, if you think about it realistically.

I get that. And you can totally game the system once you get how the area is calculated. But considering space is a premium, the contribution to climbable space for a platform should offer something for the space it takes up. Again. Pole forest. Good for climbing? Sure. Enjoyable for the animal? Probably not.

To anyone following this thread who needs help with climbing structures and platforms. Gaming the system is easy. Here's what you do:

• Don't think tree. Think jungle gym.
• For every platform you want to use, place 4 logs on each corner instead of one in the middle. A 4x4 platform used in this way will generate 5.7x4 or ~22.8 square meters of climbable space from the logs alone. Placing one at 3 meters will offer you no extra benefit, but you can basically make catwalk platform network like this if you want.

When you're lacking in space, and need 120 square meters of it for your oranguatns or whatever, you can make a box grid jungle gym like system for your climbing requirements. Horizontal logs count for just as much as vertical logs. Which means even creating your own log platforms out of logs is better than using the platforms themselves. The animals will treat them as something to walk on and not really sit on most of the time, but hey. This is how the game system works.

 

[Agathorn]

For every platform you want to use, place 4 logs on each corner instead of one in the middle.

Why would you only place one in the middle anyway? Maybe its just me, but I try to build things realistically so I always support it on all four corners in some manner or another.

 

[Souldrake]

Why would you only place one in the middle anyway? Maybe its just me, but I try to build things realistically so I always support it on all four corners in some manner or another.

Some of the climbing "tree" like blueprints available in game have one pole in the middle with a few platforms branching off with 1 log and a platform at the end.