If I recall correctly animals were actually able to turn in place without having to move in any direction to get out of tight spaces. This is why I think the issue here is either AI limitations like you said or to minimize clipping. To be honest I'd prefer to have better traversable area and shelter coverage over avoidance of clipping. It's not like the game doesn't have any clipping. Guests and staff clipping is actually a feature in the game to avoid complications. We are quite used to it so it doesn't bother me anymore.IIRC there were serious clipping issues at launch and problems with animals getting stuck in places where they couldn't turn around. I'm not entirely sure why it was changed again later, but my theory is that the boxing issue many people were experiencing was related to hitboxes as well, since the next increase seemed to happen around the time that was fixed.
All in all it seems like it's more of an AI limitation, at least the way I'm looking at it. It's all well and good to suggest that an animal should be able to pass through a narrow passageway from one large space to another, and then turn around in the second large space to go back through the narrow passageway, but if someone makes a narrow passageway that doesn't lead anywhere, can the animal get back out again?
In real life, sure, animals can and do reverse (often awkwardly) to remove themselves from tight spots, but is this a feature in the game? Is it something that can be easily implemented?
I definitely agree that the ability to use smaller doorways would be nice (especially for tiny animals like the capuchin, red panda, and pangolin, the latter of which can't even use the regular doorway building piece), but I'd be willing to bet there's some kind of good reason that they currently can't.
As for reverse, I don't think it'd be feasible to add reverse animations and additional coding for each animal at this point; I'd rather see those funds invested somewhere else (just brainstorming, not implying you suggested that btw). I also don't think it'd be necessary to add one anyway. If an animal does have turn in place animations, which they do, and can pass its hitbox through a very tight space, it can turn in place and come back from a hitbox standpoint. The question of AI and pathfinding complications, on the other hand, remains. However that brings back the question "Then how did the animals navigate properly at launch?"; which tells me this is more of a clipping avoidance issue more than anything. In that case I'd rather have the original hitboxes with some clipping over multiple traversable area, shelter coverage and climbable object navigation issues and relatively less clipping (yes it still happens). This is where I stand as long as it is a priority issue between clipping and the latter, but if there is actually a technical hindrance then it is another matter altogether.
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