WATER OBSTRUCTED

[Freddy Friendzone]

After making slight changes in my hippo habitat, my only third habitat after 30h of solving problems the game sincerely creates, I am unable to replace the water for some reason the game doesn't tell me. Spent hours trying in every way the internet suggests, it still doesn't work. No animals, no objects nearby, just a pond, a viewing glass area and a bridge which didn't cause any issue earlier. The mechanics of the game as weird and over complicated as they are, hold down creativity massively and can get to a point where the game becomes unplayable. Are these hours figuring out the weird and concealed system underlying "playtime"?

[iloveyourzoos]

I hear you! I'm very cautious about water, and always end up giving way more than is needed right at the start, because I know that I'll never be able to adjust it again.

Sounds like you've been going through the same checklist that I do for obstructions:
animals
paths
borders/barriers
rides (even if overhead).
terrain (anything that may have been raised, lowered, or smoothed out)
construction pieces
enrichment items
plants/trees/rocks

If it's a large area I'll often have to divide it into parts, so that I can search each part separately.

[rahoor]

mosty pathing creates this problem, means: you have for example a river and you build a bridge with paths over it, quite close to the watersurface. when you get rid of the water and try to fill the river again you get the message that it's blocked, even without changing anything on your design. Solution: delete all the paths that are close to water level (it hurts I'know by heart), than you can rise the water level back to your hight. Than you can replace the path.... That's of course one solution/ suggestion if all the other items have been checked....

[Freddy Friendzone]

It's been hours now looking for a way which in fact mostly consists of deleting stuff you spent hours building in the first place. The systems aren't intuitive and a paint to figure out. Maybe I could've tried more, which means deleting more stuff, which as you say hurts alot. It's like a sacrifice I don't feel comfortable to commit because of the hard time it took me. This accumulated game time feels more like work indeed.
I didn't delete all the paths surrounding my habitat which are in fact a lot regarding the size hippos need. The issue may lie in so many different things as the list suggests. I could follow it more closely, but I can also proceed working on my bachelor thesis. Both is work, both sux. However, I find my quite own solution by deleting the game which ahs more tilting potential than fifa for example ^^ it is a pain in the... butt.

Have a nice week fellas and don't waste it with concealed work ^^

[Jigglepin]

the habitat barrier may be the the issue. have you tried deleting that?? scenery shouldnt be the issue there is no collision. habitat items can affect the terrain, what about the bridge?? you say it wasnt causing a problem before but it may be now, dont over look stuff, try deleting the path or is it just a scenic bridge?? ( not walkable )

[Freddy Friendzone]

Deleted both the bridge and the barrier except for the glass barrier where you can slighty watch the hippos underwater which is the core deal with the whole thing ^^ Neither fixed it. Hard to find out which of all the possible reasons affects it negatively, might even be more than one, but you never know until it finally works which didn't.

[Jigglepin]

you need to delete the glass barrier, leaving it and working round it is what i think is causing you problems.

[Freddy Friendzone]

But how build an underwater viewing area then? The weird thing is, that it worked fine earlier and then I raised the surface and everything breaks down...

[Jigglepin]

i meant delete it, adjust your terrain, then re - build. could be to do with the terrain and barrier when you removed the water. you raised the surface of the land??

water area 'barriers' needs to be atleast 1 metre high/deep all round to allow placement (use a 1 metre wall piece for reference ) something like this might be the cause for obstruction. its not the best to explain in words i know, so the next thing i can suggest is watching paulsley and/or rudi Rennkamel on youtube. they have good tutorials on terrain and water placement, amongst other useful tips and tricks. this may help explain whats going on and solve the issue youre having.

dont get me wrong i know this game is full of quirky stuff and it gets frustrating lol, if youre still interested in solving it, give those guys a look. they may give you inspiration for stuff you didnt think was even possible too

[Nioell]

A screen would be very helpful since it might give us a better idea of the whole thing and what's causing the water to act stupid this time around...and yes, the collision of those tool is horrible and one of the main reasons that keep me from playing again -.-

My guess would be a path somewhere too close or a habitat gate, not sure if enrichment can cause issues as well but it might be worth looking into. You can also try raising the barrier higher (like at least 2-3m) and then lower it again once the water is back in, sometimes that works. Also remember the undo button when looking for whatever is obstructing the water, delete one thing, check if the water works and if not undo and leave it there, no need to loose all your work if it's not responsible for the problem.

[Freddy Friendzone]

So I did give it another try. Unfortunately I still can't make it work. I did delete the bridge, smoothed out the surface underneath, deleted all the paths around the pond, deleted fences and so on. Still no progress. I also watched recommended tutorials as I do spontaneously - btw am I the only one who struggles watching Paulsley because of his weird way to pronounce the end of some particular words harshly. Triggers me massively. However I still don't know why it fails. Thank you guys for your help anyways, but I don't see a way making my once well running Zoo layout playable again. I did make some screenshots, but don't know how to share them here.

[introspXtion]

It can be really hard to help without screengrabs. I see you have taken some of other games. All you need to do is post the url for a pic and it shows up.

I have a sandbox map that I started called Testing Ground. I do all sorts of tests there to figure things out or see what can and can't be done. Just an idea.

[filmarshal]

Cage all animals in enclosures you are editing, works for me.

[Jigglepin]

Originally posted by filmarshal:

Cage all animals in enclosures you are editing, works for me.

wow, seriously yeah has this been overlooked??? @ OP if your animals are still walking round where the water is going it wont allow it. but you have deleted barriers and such, so the animals arent in the habitat?? or are you in pause??? @OP

[Freddy Friendzone]

Recently I made the decision to delete the entire habitat and flattening it to them build from scratch. It hurt so much xD not the solution I'm comfortable with, because it degrades the previous spent time to be wasted and the time I spent with this habitat would raise up to more than 10 hours which is ridiculous. With that amount of effort I could've got laid for sure instead of “working“ in a video game... I surely assume :D however, during the process of destroying all my hard fought work I discovered a path blocking the water. It didn't touch the water surface, but nonetheless it appeared to be the issue. At that point it was to late to jump back to a previous point. Btw constructing that path one more time was... not fun.

However thank you for your support! ^^ Understanding, condolences (I guess it's called in eng right?) are a previous delegation of one's own pain :P I appreciate it a lot :D