On the Inclusion of Birds

[ralphthestick]

I have no idea about the practicality behind this at all, but is there a situation where larger birds (ones that aren't typically very active; vultures, hornbills, ibis) might not require all that much in the way of unique programming? If they were treated as climbing animals whose 'climbing' animation is flying to the point they want to get to? This would only work for birds like the ones I listed who typically just fly a short distance to a perch and then just hang out there for a while and don't look out of place pecking about on the ground.
Presumably at the moment, a chimpanzee AI has to think something along the lines of 'there is an enrichment item I want to get to at the top of this climbing frame, the shortest route to get to it is up this pole' - could a hornbill think 'I want to sit in an elevated area and can perch on that branch, the shortest route is a straight line from my current position'?
I'm sure small, active birds for a walk-through aviary would definitely require something more involved, but I feel (from my place of complete ignorance), that larger birds could be pretty satisfactory handled this way.
Similarly, could the current system which determines where water can be placed be used to determine whether a 3d space can contain birds? I assume we would need a specific kind of barrier (the much-needed nets, perhaps?) to designate an area but, with that in place, could the computer calculate whether that space is secure?

 

[LN]

Similarly, could the current system which determines where water can be placed be used to determine whether a 3d space can contain birds? I assume we would need a specific kind of barrier (the much-needed nets, perhaps?) to designate an area but, with that in place, could the computer calculate whether that space is secure?

If you use walls and floors you can already create such 3d space.
The collision detection on objects already works in a way where you can create closed off area's.

 

[ralphthestick]

If you use walls and floors you can already create such 3d space.
The collision detection on objects already works in a way where you can create closed off area's.

True as far as the animals are concerned, but only certain barrier items can be used to contain water. I suppose I brought that up more thinking about smaller, active birds who might require a completely different system - could the 3d space they are capable of moving through be calculated in the same way as a liquid? Then, once the computer has determined that the area is completely contained, it can ignore everything outside the barrier, and can work out flight paths for the birds inside it.

 

[skoav]

As a few others have already pointed out, there's a lot of species that could be handled well as habitat species using existing mechanics - large birds like hornbills, macaws, vultures and owls aren't particularly active in my opinion. They majority of their activity would come from interaction with objects, their flight patterns would be pretty direct and purposeful. It's small flighty things like passerines that would be difficult to manage without having them on set animations I think, given that they tend to be kept in large numbers and are highly active and travel in erratic patterns. I would love to be able to custom build walkthrough aviaries full of lots of different birds shooting about but there would be so much to consider in implementing that properly I just can't see it being a possibility any time soon, sadly. As much as I'd love to see some of the birds I work with in-game, I just don't see how they would fit in with the existing mechanics.

But as it's already been pointed out, there's plenty of species that could be introduced without needing convoluted new mechanics. We already have ostriches, so cassowaries seem like a simple addition (and one I'd love to see). Similarly, I could see a penguin colony functioning much the same way as the flamingos in-game, except they may require a different feeding mechanic. More waders in general, actually - if we can have a habitat full of flamingos I don't see why we wouldn't be able to have storks, herons, spoonbills, ibis and such. Maybe even ducks! If they added a feature to put netting over a habitat I could see big mixed-species wetland aviaries being a nice route to go down. And other ground birds could work much the same as peafowl! Pheasants, doves, partridges, guineafowl, tinamou, curassow... there's so many good birds!!

tdlr I love walkthrough aviaries full of songbirds and would love to see them in-game but waders and terrestrial birds are probably most likely