Orangutan climbing issues

[TFG21]

Hey everyone,

Has anyone else struggled with creating climbing frames for orangutans? It seems like a lot of what shows up as climbable using the traversable area heat map isn't actually climbable by the orangutans. I've tested by adding/deleting "climable" pieces and seeing it the total climbing area increases for the animals, and a lot of "climbable" pieces (show up green in the heat map) don't actually add to the total climbable area. I've also tested this by building a raised platform and using climbable pieces as the only means getting up to see if the platform becomes traversable (blue in the heat map). Again, not all "climable" pieces actually allow the orangutans access to the platform.

Additionally, I am having a very hard time connecting platforms even using pieces that I have tested and confirmed are climbable. I often can get the 4x4m climable platforms to register as "climable" on the heat map, but getting them to register as traversable area is near impossible. And then when I do finally manage to make it traversable and try continuing on with the climbing frame, any additions suddenly make the area not traversable again. In some cases, even deleting the new additions doesnt fix the problem, and I end up having to delete everything and try again.

Is anyone else having these issues? Is this a bug, or am I just doing something wrong? It makes building interesting climbing frames for the orangutans incredibly frustrating (to the point that I just stuck in the in-game blueprints for now). I do have around 250 hours in the game, so while I'm not an expert by no means, I feel like it shouldn't be this difficult.

Sorry for no screenshots, I'm going to get those once I've done some more testing. I've also experienced similar issues with gorillas.

 

[Cool Cats and Kittens]

The calculation of the claimable area for the big apes can be a little bit icky. It's possible to build a huge climbing area that doesn't count for the space requirement. I am speaking from experience here. But there are some rules of thumb:

• The small climbing logs don't add space at all.
• The climbing platforms add space depending on their alignment. They give the most climbing space when perfectly vertical and none when horizontal. Turning them upside down can even chance the climbing space they give.
• The real MVPs are the big climbing logs. They are calculated as climbing space regardless of angle. The three trunk named "Planet zoo log" gives you 94 m2.

Personally, I just build a good looking climbing area and add some planet zoo logs somewhere to met the habitat requirements. But I have not build a ape habitats since January. I don't know, if those rules are still accurate

 

[TFG21]

I figured out the small climbing logs don't add space (even they show up as suitable climbing enrichment for orangutans, which seems disingenuous since they can't actually use them). And I have already more than satisfied the climbing requirement, and I know I can just build whatever at this point, but I would actually like it to still be functional (I like to see the animals actually use the habitat as I intended, makes the frustration of building nice habitats worth it). The 4x4m platforms are the most frustrating to me, the fact that they dont register as traversable area when completely flat even though they are connected by suitable climable pieces just doesn't make sense (I have also tested this extensively, if it doesn't show up as traversable, they cannot use it). It seems to be only the larger apes that this problem is with, I have had zero issues building climable space for all other species. It also seems that the big apes are the only one where "climable" area on the heatmap might not actually be climable (which is also disingenuous, IMO). To me, this seems like a bug (or possibly an oversight), if it shows up green and climable in the heat map, it should ACTUALLY be climable (works this way for all other species I have found so far).