I can't understand why the guests won't use my viewing area

[Bebop17]

I'm really sad. I can't get my guests to even want to TOUCH this watchtower I made for them... took me several hours of work and I've been experimenting and tweaking for at least another hour on top of that with no success. When I work hard on something and then the guest pathing is impossible to decipher, it feels like I just wasted hours of my own time and that's very sad and frustrating.

It seems like the guests just want to get as close to the animal as possible even if that "view" involves staring directly at rocks, rather than having anything remotely scenic. At one point I lowered my "tower" into the ground to perhaps get a better view... but instead the guests decided to use just a tiny corner of the path so they could stare at rocks (behind which were a few sleeping animals)

I really wish there was a guest pathing view that could show me what makes the guests want to stand in a certain area but not another.

https://imgur.com/a/qCUYWzO

Source: https://imgur.com/a/qCUYWzO

 

[holliday50]

In this case, it's because they have such great overhead views already, nearly surrounding the entire enclosure. Sucks because it looks like you spent a lot of time designing it. To sort of force them to check out the awesome tower, maybe limit their options a little bit.

I made the same mistake with a hippo enclosure back in Beta, where they showed no interest in going to look inside the hippo shelter or the underwater viewing. They had such good views of the hippos on the way to these other areas that by the time they got there they were no longer interested. That, and the cave was a dead-end, which guests don't like unless there's a good reason for them to check it out. It's definitely a learning process. Good luck.

 

[Dae]

I think it's more a problem of dead end, they just don't go in dead ends if there's nothing to lure them in. Best things for that are exhibits and shops... But it would be nice to have a way to lure them somewhere without having to add big buildings that don't fit in the place.

 

[Bango Gerstfeld]

Wow, that looks nice.
I guess that this is due to game mechanics.
I guess that it is not that guests want to get as close as possible to the animals, but that they simply stop at the first opportunity so see an animal. The help menu says something like 'guests look for a better viewing spot if it's not too far'.
I guess that guests 'flag' when they have seen a particular species, and that they don't look for a different viewpoint for a species they already have seen.
Have you tried to make your tower into the only spot your guest can look into the habitat?

 

[Dr4gon]

An information boot there does wonders.

 

[LN]

I think it's more a problem of dead end, they just don't go in dead ends if there's nothing to lure them in. Best things for that are exhibits and shops... But it would be nice to have a way to lure them somewhere without having to add big buildings that don't fit in the place.

No, I don't think that's it. I have a similar thing which works for me.

I think this is because the lookout is further (higher) away from the habitat when comparing to the path on the other side.
Guests appear to try to be as close as possible to the animals. The view from the path is just taking them closer to the animal.

 

[jooxis]

The guests already get a pretty good view from all around the enclosure - I might add some wooden log barriers so they'd be kind of forced into the lookout (in fact it may be even more realistic as zoos don't normally have no barriers/fencing where people can fall into enclosures like in the picture ) Great job on the lookout!

 

[B4DD4WG]

I would guess you need to block their view from around the enclosure. They dont really have a reason to go up there, if they can see it all from around the pen.