Climbing Problem

[Dezessete]

I just created an habitat for my Mandrills and wanted to make a tree house as shelter.

My problem is that the game doesn't recognise it as shelter, even though the Mandrills are able to climb it.

I tried to replace the floor with actual floor pieces, but now it isn't even climbable anymore.

Any ideas what went wrong?

 

[Dinocanid]

I think the problem is that there's no ramp or other similar surface up from the ground, since the actual tree trunk is not a viable way to reach the platform (they can't just clip through the floor). The vines seem climbable, but I can't tell in the screenshot if they're connected to the ground or not. If they are, I've never had mandrils in my zoos so I have no idea if they actually use vines

 

[Dezessete]

Yes the Vines are connected such a way that the Mandrills should reach the platform through them. I had a similar set up once with lemurs and it worked (but without the shelter, just the platform). So the platform should definitely be reachable.

 

[Nioell]

Did you try setting the heat map to "shelter" instead of "traversable area"? I'm not sure that setting actually shows the shelter space as well, so it might count after all but is just not shown as shelter in that filter.

 

[Dezessete]

Did you try setting the heat map to "shelter" instead of "traversable area"? I'm not sure that setting actually shows the shelter space as well, so it might count after all but is just not shown as shelter in that filter.

I did that. That's why I know that it doesn't count as shelter.

 

[Nioell]

Okay, weird Did you already try to lower the roof or make the platform bigger? Maybe the poles and ropes are too close to the trunk...hitboxes again? -.-

 

[Dezessete]

I could try, but the hit boxes don't seem to be that big when I look at other places in the habitat.

 

[craftymutt]

I don't think an area can count as shelter if it is not also walkable (blue) area. My experience with walkable area is also that it only appears on higher climb-to-able surfaces if there is also a way to walk onto that area, rather than just climb to it (then it counts as climbing). A climbable floor piece would still be able to be walkable and count as shelter in the same situations a non-climbable surface would qualify for those features, so you should be able to use either, it's just quite complicated to get the game to qualify an area as walkable. Whenever I want some piece to count as walkable I always have to create a ramp up to it from another walkable area, which is not always visually what I want, but it gets around it. You could also try to make a very small piece of terrain just above the floor of, or next to, your structure, to create a kind of "getting off" point of the climbing frame, which they can then walk onto your floor area from.
I think a secondary thing is that if a roof is too high it stops counting as shelter? Perhaps the roof would need to be a little closer to the floor pieces, but I think getting the floor pieces to show up with blue walkable area is the primary thing you need here.

 

[onk]

Usually this habitat is for capuchins, but for a test I gave the same a mandrill.But it made no difference, it's pretty much the same traversable area.
There are 4 platforms, which 3 of them are only reachable be climbing and one of them only with ropes.

I tried to recreate the situation, by coming from top instead of bottom with a rope, to place leaf bedding....no difference

So, I can't confirm/share the "ramp/they have to walk on it"-theory in general....and guess it is some kind of bug..or something else is involved.

edit:

btw, of curiosity I even placed a roof in near distance above it...no issue with that.

 

[Nioell]

I just went and tested it as well, and no surprise I was right it IS the hitbox issue again...

Note how the poles are positioned slightly more towards the center of the structure and the platform doesn't count as traversable or shelter...

Now, same pieces, same hight only difference is the poles that are moved farther out toward the edges...

...and it counts as both traversable and as shelter.

So I'd suggest moving the poles to the edge of the platform and see if that works.

 

[craftymutt]

That works with how I understand it, because they get to the top of the pole and they can walk off it onto the surface, rather than when the pole is more below and the only way to reach the surface is by climbing between the two on a green line. Maybe better phrased is that the easiest most reliable way to make a surface walkable has in my cases usually been building a ramp up to it, but yeah it's certainly not an exact science and the way the game calculates traversal is mystical, and also subject to changes over time with updates.

 

[Nioell]

That works with how I understand it, because they get to the top of the pole and they can walk off it onto the surface, rather than when the pole is more below and the only way to reach the surface is by climbing between the two on a green line. Maybe better phrased is that the easiest most reliable way to make a surface walkable has in my cases usually been building a ramp up to it, but yeah it's certainly not an exact science and the way the game calculates traversal is mystical, and also subject to changes over time with updates.

Might be a combination of the two, since it's somehow reachable and counted as climbable but not traversable. Could be because the hitbox doesn't have enough space to move onto the platform unless the poles or vines are only connected to the edge of it, not going through them completely no matter how close to the edge it is.

 

[Dezessete]

UPDATE:
I just tested it with the theory from craftymutt and made a stone ramp leading to the tree house. Now it counts as traversable area and also as shelter. So it works that way. I dont really understand why it is handled that way, but it seems to work.

Thank you everyone.

 

[Firestar97]

It should be also possible without building a Ramp if you place a Building Piece that isn't climbable into the Platform. This worked at least in a Gorilla Enclosure I've built once

 

[Dezessete]

It should be also possible without building a Ramp if you place a Building Piece that isn't climbable into the Platform. This worked at least in a Gorilla Enclosure I've built once

I did but it didn't change a thing. Instead the climbable area coudn't be climbed anymore.

 

[Firestar97]

I did but it didn't change a thing. Instead the climbable area coudn't be climbed anymore.

Ok, it was some Time ago, so maybe they've changed it

 

[Chante Goodman]

Glad to see you've all come together to aid @Dezessete on this!