Farm animals and temperature

[skullywag]

Can someone help me here.

In the old "area" based system when an outside area got too cold I would just flip my animals to go "inside" and voila, no hypothermia, with the new "pen" system, I have a barn with "animal flaps" which as the description states is used to let animals come inside to sleep, perfect.....however, if its cold outside in the Pen and animals have no concept of seeking safe temperature they simply wander around outside in the dead of winter at daytime and die to hypothermia, so the only way to combat this I have found is to have a completely walled/doored off "barn" that doesnt use "animal flaps" and put a pen marker in there and micromanage each time it gets cold which animals need to go inside.

My question is, is this expected? if so whats the point in the animal flap apart from making your farm feel more "farmy".

Am I missing something here?

[GoblinCookie]

Yes the new animal pens system sucks, everybody knows that.  They didn't think it though at all.  Animal behavior remains ridiculously rudimentary and we cannot really have that without giving us (the player) the ability to micromanage which we now lack. 

[AileTheAlien]

The flaps just block heat loss like normal doors, so you need some heat source inside your barn in winter. Last time I checked the XML defs (Xmas?), braziers had the most efficient wood to heat-output ratio, but their slow output means you'd be take up a lot of floor-space. You can also use a campfire or electric heater.

[skullywag]

Having a heat source inside the barn is not the issue here ( i do have one ) the issue is animals dont come inside when its cold, they just wander in their "pen" which includes the outside space.

[AileTheAlien]

That just sounds like a bug. When I was trying out the animal changes in the beta, they always just went to their barns at night, but I was playing in a moderate desete climate, not cold.

[Canute]

I don't think he spoke about night and animal's sleeping at their spots.
It is more about daytime and it is too cold outside for them that they don't seek a safe temperature like colonist would do.
But i think it is intended since animal's are not that clever. Default behavior from wild animal's would be to leave the map, but yours can't do that.
You need to do the same like all ranger when it is cold, close the door at night that they can't get out anymore.

[skullywag]

As I said that means its then a point to micromanage this aspect, replacing the flap with an actual door with 2 pen markers and flip the animals between them, the question was is that the expected outcome here, if it is thats fine, it just seemed to make the flap kind of useless. (in the instance of any map with temperatures under animal safe amount)

[AileTheAlien]

I think it is intended [that animals don't come inside on their own] since animal's are not that clever.

That makes no sense. The description of the animal flap explicitly says that it's made for animals to use on their own. If they're smart enough to know where their bed is, they're smart enough to know that it's warm.

[skullywag]

All the flap does is join areas to extend a pen to allow wandering and searching for a bed, animals inherently have no other "advanced" AI, I guess the question here really is should animals seek safe temperature, which as they already leave the map if its too cold, some could argue the "wild" animals have a distinct advantage over tamed versions of the same animals and should infact seek safe temperature within their allowed area/pen, which would then make use of the flaps ability to add areas to a pen etc.

[skullywag]

Interestingly I think animals are actually temperature aware, just had another game where some chickens stayed inside the barn until the temp went above -20 (the point at which i believe they would begin getting hypothermia) then they started exiting through the flap.

So now im wondering if its chickens especially that have some behaviour or just once animals are outside they dont come back in if the temp dips below danger point for them. i.e its only a check to ENTER a new "zone".

edit - so watched the chickens a bit more, they stay inside at night during winter, temperaturs is -25 outside, as morning comes temperature increases to -19 the moment it ticks above -20 they exit the barn via the flap, the day then gets colder than -20 and the chickens stay outside and catch hypothermia, So I think im right in thinking that the check only happens on CROSSING a boundary (i.e the flap), its warmer inside so they have no issue going in (not sure if they stay inside once they randomly wander in, will check this) but once in an environment that was hospitable but now isnt they dont check again as they arent crossing a boundary.

edit 2 - ok so yeah its if the destination of pathing would end in a inhospitable area they will stay in their current zone, the issue is if the current zone has become inhospitable since they first moved there.