Custom barriers - climb proofing / barrier strength

[abrothers2]

I'm trying to up my game and make better, more interest habitats for my animals and the one through line that I keep seeing in every video is that making custom barriers / fence pieces is an important part to making the whole thing pop.

I saw a previous discussion post where someone was asking about making custom barriers climb proof, a user replied and said to line the top of the blueprint with a climb proof scenery object. That was a couple years ago, does this still work?

Also stronger animals like Hippos and Tigers need higher grade fencing when using the standard fence options. Is this accounted for when making custom barriers? Or could I use whatever I wanted so long as it is correctly positioned and the right height?

Thanks in advance.

[Varick]

Not sure how in depth you want to know about barriers - game given and player built, so, to answer your question without too much wording:

Custom made barriers for habitats, to me, always are more interesting and can provide a natural look to your habitats.

It is all about transversable. Any construction and/or scenery pieces do not need anything at the top to prevent climbers from escaping as long as the barrier you make is not transversable for habitat animals. People may be using fencing at the top because either the barrier they made is climbable (like layered rocks) or because it looks more "realistic" or a combination of the two.

When you use construction and/or scenery pieces there is no strength grading involved. Grading only applies to game given barriers. Height is still a consideration because, depending on the species, a too low made barrier can be jumped or stepped over. Jumpers, however, can only jump so high up and so low down. African pots on the ground can prevent an elephant from escaping but, depending on width, a kangaroo can jump them or a giraffe can step over them. The easiest way is just use a height that is indicated on the game given barriers for that particular species.

[grampers62]

Also note that custom barriers using building pieces and scenery may now be flagged as not climbable to prevent climbing species from escaping.

[abrothers2]

i tried using a chisel tool to dig a trench but the african wild dogs I put in there just keep jumping over it. Does it need to be more than 3m wide? Should I sink the ground in the habitat more? Will a trench not even work with more agile animals? It's frustrating because I tore up a whole section of my park with the terraforming tool to do this and it doesn't even work - or even look that much nicer than my soulless rectangle habitats.

[grampers62]

Yeah, trenches need to be fairly wide and the depth needs to be greater than the barrier height. For those wild dogs try 5 meters wide and greater than 4 meters deep. Or just use the terrain stamp tool set at 10 meters tall and 5 meters wide to create the trench.

[abrothers2]

Okay, I guess that makes sense. Does climbing ability factor into making these trenches or no?

[grampers62]

Only if one places climbable objects where an animal can jump from one to another.

[abrothers2]

Wider trench seems to work, thank you Grampers. I ended up smashing the stamp tool a bit too hard and making a bit of a canyon, so I wound up turn it into a waterfall and shallow river feature.