Visitors like a concrete wall more than a panda (and some findings on walk-through habitats)

[MrTux]

I did some tests walk-through habitats and noticed this:

The visitors look at the concrete wall instead of the panda...
Fun fact 2 / bug 2: visitors can't look through modern glass wall 2 and 3. Only through modern glass wall 1. But even with modern glass wall 1 instead of 3 between the path and the panda, a big amount of visitors looked to the wrong side of the path.

Not feedback but maybe still interesting (and an explanation for the screenshot):
This was a test for walk-through habitats. Findings:

1. Visitors (and staff) on a path ignore hitboxes and walk through walls, rocks, scenery and decoration items, etc. But animals can't walk through anything like that. You can use that to make walk-through habitats without the guest gate. Just let some ropes hang from the ceiling, or some indian wall carpets, etc.
2. It doesn't matter where the habitat fence is. Only the traversable area of the animal matters. As you can see in the screenshot the path goes through the habitat and visitors walk on it even though the panda is not an animal where guests can enter the habitat. But as soon as I remove one of the glass pieces and the path becomes a part of the pandas traversable area, the visitors run. Same for wolves, lions, etc.

 

[marcnesiumHH]

I did some tests walk-through habitats and noticed this:
The visitors look at the concrete wall instead of the panda...

Not feedback but maybe still interesting (and an explanation for the screenshot):
This was a test for walk-through habitats. Findings:

1. Visitors (and staff) on a path ignore hitboxes and walk through walls, rocks, scenery and decoration items, etc. But animals can't walk through anything like that. You can use that to make walk-through habitats without the guest gate. Just let some ropes hang from the ceiling, or some indian wall carpets, etc.
2. It doesn't matter where the habitat fence is. Only the traversable area of the animal matters. As you can see in the screenshot the path goes through the habitat and visitors walk on it even though the panda is not an animal where guests can enter the habitat. But as soon as I remove one of the glass pieces and the path becomes a part of the pandas traversable area, the visitors run. Same for wolves, lions, etc.

thanks for sharing this just wondering, how tall was the concrete barrier and was anything else in the direction visitors were looking?

 

[MrTux]

The wall was around 2m tall and there was literally nothing of interest on the other side. (all the other habitats are empty and there is nothing built that isn't visible in this screenshot except some staff stuff at the top)
I increased the wall height to 10m and it changed nothing.

Then I replaced the glass wall with modern glass wall 1 which visitors can see through, and immediately a lot of visitors started looking in the right direction. But there were still a lot of people looking at the concrete wall.

Next test: What if I replace the glass wall with a brick-wall but put it a bit farther from the path?

Answer: Even though the people can't look through the wall and can't possibly see a panda, they look at it.
To make it a proper scientific experiment I moved the brick wall to where the glass wall was from before. And people did not try to look through it.

Last test: How about a barrier concrete wall right next to the path?

Nobody looked at it.
And what about a barrier concrete wall a bit further away from the path between panda and path?

Same as with the brick wall.

So, more random findings and a possible cheat:

• People will try to look through non-transparent walls or barriers if they are not within a certain distance of the path, and then complain about the view. If the non-transparent wall or barrier is next to the path, they won't try to look through it. For a transparent wall, it doesn't matter (except for the bug that the glass wall 2 and 3 is actually non-transparent).
• What the visitors thought about the view:
  • I haven't counted it but it seems to me like most people who looked at the concrete wall did not report anything about the view (neither positive or negative) but those who reported something about the view, said it was terrible and gave a red sad face
  • Nobody looked at the non-transparent wall or barrier directly next to the path, so they didn't report anything
  • People who looked at the non-transparent wall or barrier that was a bit farther from the path were split between yellow :/ face and sad face , some gave the view 3 stars even though they could not have possibly seen anything
  • People who looked through the glass wall and could have actually seen a panda gave green face or most of them :/ yellow face
• Possible cheat: A huge amount of people had a green face thought about how they liked being in the panda-enclosure. So the cheat: Just design all enclosures in a way that the path is part of the enclosure (with null fences), then use transparent building pieces to actually separate the animals from the path and your visitors are probably happier than if you made the enclosure the "correct" way.

 

[MrTux]

All that testing was done with a "fake" walk-through habitat. I was curious, so I did some more testing with a regular habitat.
If the habitat border barrier is non-transparent it does not matter how far it is placed from the path. Visitors never try to look through it.
Non-transparent wall inside the habitat next to the path: Visitors don't try to look through it.
Non-transparent wall inside the habitat a bit further away from the path: Visitors try to look through it.
Non-transparent barrier inside of the habitat, that is not part of the habitat wall, next to the path: Visitors don't try to look through it.
Non-transparent barrier inside of the habitat, that is not part of the habitat wall, a bit further from the path: Visitors try to look through it and complain about the view.
So far everything is exactly the same as with the walk-through habitat.
But, how about a non-transparent barrier outside of the habitat?
Control-group: Can visitors even look through two barriers? Yes, they can
Non-transparent barrier outside of the habitat, next to the path: Visitors don't try to look through it (but found a spot on the left where they could look past it, sneaky)
Non-transparent barrier outside of the habitat, a bit further away from the path: Visitors still don't try to look through it.
Works the same way with building walls

Conclusion number 2/final conclusion:
Guests correctly guess if they can see a habitat or not. Like if the outside wall of the habitat is not visible from a path, they won't try to look at it. However if something blocks their view inside of the habitat, they will only correctly guess if they can actually see the animal, if the thing blocking their view is next to the path. If it is a bit further away, they will try to look through it and fail and complain about the view.

PS: Mods, please don't ban me for posting so many pictures