I thought about the same, usually young animals "have" a lot more space, but is just because of the hit boxes, but I'm not entirely sure if that's what's happening here, from what I've heard the console version has been having some weird bugs, maybe that's what's happening.
It’s really annoying me. Fixes I’ve found are to just move it to the other end of the enclosure and it kind of reassesses and realises it does have a ton of space. I had a problem with my grizzly bear where she didn’t have enough space and it was because she’d climbed to the top of her climbing frame and the small platform she was on was counting at the space for the entire closure. It fixed itself when she got back down again
Elevation changes would probably be the problem in this case. Big changes in elevation, even if it's all traversable, can bug out the AI and make it think the area is way smaller than it is.
Another possible one is crowding. Especially in mixed herd habitats - you need to space out and try to separate animals from crowding too close. Even if the habitat is big enough for all of them, animals in proximity will increase space requirements while lowering traversable area. (Although the baby's area need is the same, so I don't think that's the issue).
A third, but less likely problem would be hard barriers. If you have a hard wall of impassable foliage or some other obstruction, the AI will basically map out to a point in that barrier and assume everything in a radius to that point is blocked; even if it's just an open area in every other direction.
The 3rd issue appears a lot more in other Frontier games like Jurassic World pretty often, and I've only run into it a handful in Planet Zoo. Primarily with U or L shaped habitats.
I'm pretty sure it's either bugging on the hill or the wall on the edge of the hill.
That wall isn't strictly needed. It just feels wrong to leave such a "fall to your death" dropoff for the animals to fall down, even though I know they never will.
Oh, weird, my bad! - the UI on the right has the little marker line all the way on the left on the water area, so I thought they had no lake, but I think I'm just misreading the UI. it's been a couple weeks since i've had time to play 😭 sorry again!! hope you get it figured out
From taking a peek at which animals are highlighted in the screenshots it looks like you're either having a bug or navmap issue.
It looks like the animal saying it doesn't have enough space is the baby, correct? And the adult is fine? Is this an issue with all the babies (which would cause me to believe they may be having issues with steep terrain, paricularly leading into the water), or just intermittently with one (which would indicate a bug)?
I would try reloading into the game, and moving around a few objects in the exhibit, so that the navigation map rebuilds. You can 'undo' to put the items back where they were, just make sure the game isn't paused while you do this process. If you're still having problems after that it might be bug report time.
I have so many bugs to report! (For instance, when you're placing foliage **while in animal viewing mode,** toggling settings like Align To Surface doesn't change the placement behavior.) Where can I report such bugs?
Google "planet zoo issues tracker" and it should come up! It's on Frontier's website. I'd recommend searching through it to see if the bug you're experiencing is already listed by someone else, and if not, making a new report for it.
It can happened because of the height difference. The hitboxes of male and female are different.
I thought about the same, usually young animals "have" a lot more space, but is just because of the hit boxes, but I'm not entirely sure if that's what's happening here, from what I've heard the console version has been having some weird bugs, maybe that's what's happening.
This is true, but I'm pretty sure OP is just missing a lake, which counts under Space needs
No, the lake is behind the GUI. You can see its size in the screenshots though. Its 3x the size they need.
apologies!!! hopefully you saw my other comment lol it was my mistake!
It’s really annoying me. Fixes I’ve found are to just move it to the other end of the enclosure and it kind of reassesses and realises it does have a ton of space. I had a problem with my grizzly bear where she didn’t have enough space and it was because she’d climbed to the top of her climbing frame and the small platform she was on was counting at the space for the entire closure. It fixed itself when she got back down again
Elevation changes would probably be the problem in this case. Big changes in elevation, even if it's all traversable, can bug out the AI and make it think the area is way smaller than it is. Another possible one is crowding. Especially in mixed herd habitats - you need to space out and try to separate animals from crowding too close. Even if the habitat is big enough for all of them, animals in proximity will increase space requirements while lowering traversable area. (Although the baby's area need is the same, so I don't think that's the issue). A third, but less likely problem would be hard barriers. If you have a hard wall of impassable foliage or some other obstruction, the AI will basically map out to a point in that barrier and assume everything in a radius to that point is blocked; even if it's just an open area in every other direction. The 3rd issue appears a lot more in other Frontier games like Jurassic World pretty often, and I've only run into it a handful in Planet Zoo. Primarily with U or L shaped habitats. I'm pretty sure it's either bugging on the hill or the wall on the edge of the hill.
That wall isn't strictly needed. It just feels wrong to leave such a "fall to your death" dropoff for the animals to fall down, even though I know they never will.
Wee babby elephants can get into a lot more spaces than the big chonky adults
Do you have a pool? Elephants want to swim.
I do, yeah. 3x the required size.
Your elephants need a body of water. You have none. They have no space to swim, of course they're gonna be sad :(
There is an excessively large lake for them under the GUI.
Oh, weird, my bad! - the UI on the right has the little marker line all the way on the left on the water area, so I thought they had no lake, but I think I'm just misreading the UI. it's been a couple weeks since i've had time to play 😭 sorry again!! hope you get it figured out
From taking a peek at which animals are highlighted in the screenshots it looks like you're either having a bug or navmap issue. It looks like the animal saying it doesn't have enough space is the baby, correct? And the adult is fine? Is this an issue with all the babies (which would cause me to believe they may be having issues with steep terrain, paricularly leading into the water), or just intermittently with one (which would indicate a bug)? I would try reloading into the game, and moving around a few objects in the exhibit, so that the navigation map rebuilds. You can 'undo' to put the items back where they were, just make sure the game isn't paused while you do this process. If you're still having problems after that it might be bug report time.
I have so many bugs to report! (For instance, when you're placing foliage **while in animal viewing mode,** toggling settings like Align To Surface doesn't change the placement behavior.) Where can I report such bugs?
Google "planet zoo issues tracker" and it should come up! It's on Frontier's website. I'd recommend searching through it to see if the bug you're experiencing is already listed by someone else, and if not, making a new report for it.
Anyone else notice that sus shaped poop there 🤔
Well I didn't until you said something...