-More shapes and sizes of Viviariums (small for insects and frogs, bigger,longer ones for big lizards and big snakes.
-brachiation (apes, mainly orangutan, and gibbons, if they were added in the future)
-null paths
-dynamic snow on tundra/ice rocks
-aquatic habitat entrance
-King Cheetah pattern variant for Cheetah
-Mane colour variants for Lion
-Species Systematics in Zoopedia
-Ability to sort by categories (Mammal,Fish,Reptile etc.) -Aviaries, Most wanted
I'm not sure if this has been mentioned before, but the 4m inverted painted stained slate roof and the 2m equivalent are improperly named! The 4m piece is named 2m and vice versa!
Hello everyone, and welcome! This is the 1.8 Meta-Suggestions list. You may know this list as it's old name (small and easy suggestions), but we've rebranded! After well over a year of continuing this list and adding new things when the dev team implements our ideas, I have decided to finally open this list up to bigger ticket items. This includes model errors, overhauls and new scenery items (foliage too)! This list is quite a bit longer than you're used to seeing, but I think everything here has it's place and is warranted to some degree. It is the culmination of roughly 40+ hours of work/research since 1.7 has released. I would like to thank all of the community managers and the dev team, we had 13(!) items addressed between 1.6 and 1.7. That's easily the most yet! Those will be reflected in color at the bottom, so you can see what's new. Without further delay, the list:
Zoopedia, Biome and Geography Issues
Make the following appropriate biomes changes for the following animals/biomes
Remove Tropical Rainforest and add Aquatic for Cape buffalo (explained further down)
Taxonomy errors:
"Timber wolf " refers to specifically to three North American exclusive subspecies of gray wolf. Using the Zoopedia's distribution map, along with the overall model design and the different translation names, we can logically come to the conclusion that this is in fact supposed to specifically be the Rocky Mountain Wolf, aka the Mackenzie Valley Wolf. This means it's named should be changed, and all references to Europe be stripped away from it's Zoopedia entry and distribution map.
As a further expansion on this point, the translated names pointed out here by @Aramar are very inconsistent.
Rename the “African buffalo” to be the Cape Buffalo. The full Latin name in the Zoopedia along with the distribution map indicate this is meant to be this specific subspecies only, and not a catch-all for the entire species. Thus, the name is incorrect and should be changed. As such, the Tropical Rainforest biome no longer applies. It should have Aquatic regardless, as the Cape buffalo frequents wetland regions. The rest of the bio will need to be edited.
Rename the “Galapagos giant tortoise” to either Chatham island tortoise or San Cristobal island tortoise (this refers to the same animal). There is no such creature as a “Galapagos giant tortoise”, as many different species that look drastically different from each other make up that group of animals. Also, the scientific name chosen for the Zoopedia, Chelonoidis niger, refers to an extinct species. The name should actually be Chelonoidis chathamensis. The rest of the bio will need to be edited.
The “Pronghorn antelope” is not an antelope at all. The word needs to be removed from the name, so it reads only as “Pronghorn”. The rest of the bio will need to be edited.
For the "Nature" tab, Central American should be added to North America and removed from South America, in order to be accurate to geography and geopolitical issues.
Any animal that lives in Central America but only has the current South/Central tag will need to have the new North/Central America tag added.
General Zoopedia Errors:
Add Baird's tapir and giant anteater to North American Zoopedia filter (the rest of Central American animals are correctly there)
The info sign for the moose references Alces alces gigantes which is the specific Alaskan subspecies, however this change is not reflected in the actual animal. The info sign should instead just be Alces alces , the Zoopedia should have North America, Europe and Asia as continents, and have taiga, temperate, tundra and aquatic biomes.
Binturongs do not live in Singapore, as such this should be removed from it's range in the distribution map and Zoopedia description.
Exhibit System
Biome changes
Add Aquatic biome to Goliath frog and make it the biome shown in the exhibit box.
New Features
Allow glass, roof and bottom on exhibit boxes to be set to null individually. There is a mod that allows this, but being an official part of the game would be preferred. This will allow us to create custom displays and would go a long way for creativity options, which is easily the biggest complaint for exhibits currently. Can be implemented into the drop down menus that already exist for choose between window, opaque and background art.
Allow a toggle option either in the game settings or in the exhibit's settings that automatically sends newly matured animals directly to the trade center, to make balancing populations less tedious, especially when playing on triple speed.
Consistency issues
Add the ability to change water color and transparency to the Aquatic biome vivarium. Should be easy to implement given the system already exists for standing water and some scenery items.
Add 3D façade for the Aquatic biome vivarium. I was greatly disappointed that no effort was made to give it one since the base game biomes (Desert and Tropical Rainforest) both have one.
Since the Puff adder and Sacred scarab beetle are now in the Grassland biome rather than Desert, they deserve a new vivarium ground texture, foliage and two new custom 2D and 3D backgrounds for the Grassland biome. (Edit: It seems the beetle was moved into the desert biome, but the puff adder remains. Rather than moving the adder back to desert, please move the beetle back to grasslands, and give them their own terrain).
Animals Behaviors and Animal Models
Edits for/to major behaviors (Diving, burrowing, climbing)
The following animals need to spend more of their time climbing, especially climbing trees; binturongs, koalas, capuchin monkeys, Chinese pangolin and red pandas. These animals in particular should not be spending so much time on the ground.
Specifically, red pandas and binturongs should be spending at least 80% of the time climbing on trees and climbing frames. Koalas should literally only be on the ground to poop and when moving to a tree feeder, so 95% of the time at least.
Add Chinese pangolin to the climbing system, and give it the binturong's "hanging" animations. This species of pangolin is actually notably arboreal and also has a prehensile tail like the binturong. Credit to @macronecu for pointing this out.
Finish adding diving to relevant species: Baird's and Malayan tapir, Nile monitor, Moose
Not diving, but re-add the swimming animations for the Chatham island/San Cristobal island tortoise that existed in beta
Add some more unique animations while diving such as tigers and bears play fighting
Expanding enrichment usage:
Give all canids that do not already (except fennec fox, due to size constraint) access to rope toy, swimming pool and tennis ball enrichment items (fennec fox has this latter one anyways).
Add natural termite mound use and animations to chimpanzee, bonobo, pangolin, aardvark and meerkat. Currently, these can only use the non-natural one.
In congruence with this, give the giant anteater access to the artificial termite mound
Give forage wall access to all remaining bear species
Give hammock access to jaguar, giant panda, Formosan black bear and snow leopard
Replace herb scent marker with blood scent marker for polar bears
Give disco ball access to the bonobo and King penguin, since the chimpanzee and Cape penguin can use it, they may as well also
Give the moose the underwater herbivore feeder
Give the prairie dog access to the small and large food bowls. They currently only can use the "arboreal" feeding platforms, which are gigantic compared to their size.
New enrichment item ideas
Add a "sentry post" style enrichment item for meerkats, modeled after a tree stump (preferably some generic enough to fit in any setting). New animations only need to be created for getting onto the object, when on the object, the current "sentry" animations can be reused with no issue.
Add two new enrichments items: smaller versions of the forage box and mud wallow. This would be intended to be used only by smaller animals/smaller groups of animals. The current items are quite large, and can thus limit habitat design. Idea provided by @NZFanatic
A smaller version of the waterfall enrichment, for similar reasons to the above point. It looks a bit odd when using the giant one for a small flamingo habitat for instance.
Sleeping log/tree limb! One or two variations, perhaps a natural branch and one that's more of a generic log (flexicolor please). This would hang off of the edge of a hill or climbing platform and would provide unique sleeping/resting animations for the relevant animals, being binturongs, red pandas, clouded leopards, sun and moon (Formosan) bears, jaguars, lions. Super easy way to get animals climbing more often, and for longer.
Leafless, broken trees, but as enrichment items, with specific sets of climbing animations for different animals.
Water slide object that must end in a connection to a body of water, being used by otters, seals and sea lions.
Each biome should have a tree for a natural scratching post, except the aquatic biome. Currently the tropical rainforest and taiga biomes are the only two with trees that fit.
Temperate fall leaves sleeping pile
Give ambiance speakers a small privacy bonus for shy animals
Increase cold and snow tolerance for Formosan black bear to be more realistic.
Remove giant anteaters as a walkthrough habitat, they are incredibly dangerous and would absolutely never, ever be allowed as one in a real zoo.
Make the Bactrian camel a walkthrough habitat. Since this is supposed to be the domesticated animal, not the wild one, it makes sense to allow this as a walkthrough animal.
Make it so that water based plants, in particular the lilly pad and water lotus, are not able to be walked on. It completely ruins immersion to see a hippo or elephant walking on a patch of water lilies.
Slightly boost the number of spotted hyena able to be kept together without infighting. Generally, hyenas can be kept in larger family groups than the game currently limits.
Change any food texture items with polar bear food enrichment to be meat exclusive. Some still use a mixed fruits and veggies texture, which is fine for any bear species except polar bears, which are hyper-carnivores and would never eat fruits or vegetables, except very, very rarely in captivity only. Not common enough to justify the texture remaining the same.
Allow Southern white rhino and hippo to share habitats without fighting. Doesn't necessarily need enrichment bonus, just the no fighting caveat.
Every known animal model issue/error
California sea lion: The male model is much too small in comparison to the female model. Sea lion males are always far larger than the females, regardless of captivity vs wild. The male model needs to be made larger.
Southern white rhino: The rhino calf is the model of a juvenile animal, but is the size of a newborn infant. If the animal is to remain the infant size, the model needs to be reworked so that the horn is removed, as baby rhinos do not yet have horns. If the animal is intended to be a juvenile, then the model need to be made bigger, and the size of the head and feet need to be increased a bit.
Malayan tapir: Purple coloration, Baird's tapir mark on head is leftover, nose is too short, hump not pronounced enough etc. There.Are.Plenty.Of.Threads....that discuss this issue. I think of all the model errors, this is the most egregious, partially because the art team was able to make a sign that looks exactly like a proper Malayan tapir while the actual animal model is a 1 to 1 reskin, and partially because we know that Frontier is aware of this issue, and has patched other animals (binturong, dhole) but seemingly doesn't care enough to fix this one.
Llama: Not a bad issue per say, but for some reason, when color variations were added, the all white skin that was the default before color variations was removed. I am asking for it to be re-added.
Gharial: Skin texture should be slightly darkened, scutes missing from the back/spine, body is a bit too bulky/pudgy, head shape needs to be narrower. This 3D rendering shows how the changes to the model should be made.
Chatham Island tortoise: Model is too small for a full grown adult. These can usually get quite bigger than the ones in PZ are capable, as this picture will show.
Aldabra tortoise: Has the same issue as the above, the model is too small for a full grown adult. These can also get quite big, as this picture will show.
Jaguar: Fur is too fluffy and a bit too darkly colored (brown). The body is too lithe like a leopard, and should be stockier and more muscled. The head should be slightly enlarged and made more muscular, there should not be black on the front of the ears, and the spot patterns should be darkened.
West African lion: Probably the single most complained about animal until the binturong and Malayan tapir issues came. The lioness is good, but the cubs need these spots or mottling on them. If they were juvenile animals it wouldn't be an issue, but they are clearly designed as cubs. The male lion needs it's mane entirely redone with the updated fur shader/texture, the original one looks like plastic. Both male and female adults need the snout elongated. Male needs mane variations (both coloration and maneless variants).
Grizzly bear: Needs a rework because it's the wrong kind of thick. It looks way overly fat, instead of stocky with a good mix of muscle and stored fat. It literally has the body shape of a potato.This is what an actual Grizzly looks like.
Himalayan brown bear: Let's all be frank. This was an animal added to the base game to help pad out the roster. It's nearly an exact carbon copy of the Grizzly bear. Look at this picture and you tell me if you think Planet Zoo's bear is close to accurate. It's way too fat, the coloration is too dark, the ears are wrong. Just not great all around.
American bison: Slightly too small, the head needs to be a bit larger and in general should be a bit taller. Here is a diagram that compares what the average size of an America plains bison looks like when compared to an average size adult human. In Planet Zoo, the keepers are usually as tall as the bison's hump (which itself needs to be made a bit taller).
Bactrian camel: This is also undersized. Here is a similar diagram for you to compare sizes with. In addition, the Planet Zoo camel has the face of a dromedary camel, not of a Bactrian camel. It also needs color variations including white, dark brown, cream and gold/ginger. Seeing as this is intended to be the domesticated Bactrian camel and these variations are common in captivity.
Cheetah: The adults are good, but the baby cheetahs are carbon copies of the adults, when they are clearly supposed to be infant/cubs. Here is what PZ made. Now compare it to a real cub. Unfortunately, not even close.
Snow leopard: The face and body are too fat, overall should be more lithe. The face should be a little elongated and the eyes slightly enlarged.
Spotted hyena: Neck arch and hind legs need to be a bit more exaggerated than the PZ version. Also, the "mane" needs to be more pronounced.
Nile monitor: Skin patterning on the adult is somewhat inaccurate, but not game breaking. What is however, is that the babies are carbon copies of the adult, just smaller. This is totally inaccurate compared to how they should actually look.
Koala: Too cute and stylized, looks like a plush toy. The lines around the mouth should be more defined, the nose should be more defined. The ears should be whiter, and for once you have here a PZ animal that actually should have more fur but it doesn't. The ears need to be more scraggily, seen here.
Rocky Mountain wolf: Animal is overall too fluffy and way too fat, especially the face. It has jowls for crying out loud, it's so fat. Here are some pictures of what an actual North American gray wolf looks like.
Chimpanzee: Make adult face darker, not pink. Usually only infants have pink faces.
Foliage, Rocks and Landscapes
General foliage ideas:
Less bushy bamboo options. Sometimes we just want to be able to use the taller stalks and not have gigantic leaves and branches obscuring vision. This happens even with the smallest Bengal bamboo size.
Taller, skinnier trees. This follows the same logic as above, we want to use trees that aren't so short and fat they obstruct vision. Around 3-4m up for the foliage to start appearing would be good for line of sight. Think of how the yellow fever trees are, tall, skinny and spread out. That's what I mean here.
More grasses. The drinn grass was a fantastic addition, but we could use at least 2-3 more species.
More Western palms (and palmettos). I've changed this to specify "New World" palms as the Africa pack and 1.6 update did a good job adding some fantastic African palms.
More aquatic plants. Specifically, some more sea grass and giant kelp would be fantastic choices.
More natural looking climbable branches and logs. We're super limited still and usually have to resort to non natural looking options, which yes, I would include the log/wood climbing set. I want some really natural looking dead trees and branches.
Wood chip piles and flat wood chip surface covering items (just like the mulch items). These are heavily recommended by the AZA and EAZA for many habitats such as elephant and rhinos. In Goron’s video interview with a habitat designer, this was talked about and he specifically noted how PZ does not have any wood chip items.
Individual cattails and reeds
General rock ideas:
Add in 5-10 new medium and large models for the fake rocks, with some updated texturing, still make them flexicolor.
Add new faux rock items in the shape of the flat “rock cladding” items the “real” biome rocks have. Make flexicolor, same as the current faux rocks.
Kopje texture and shaped style rocks
Faux rock baobab tree (the tall, skinny, dead kind that zoos tend to use)
Dynamic snow rocks, using the taiga or tundra rocks as the base. Functions that same as the dynamic moss rocks.
Foliage options for regions that are underrepresented in general:
Aquatic-Saltwater/Coastal/Brackish (As mentioned above, the aquatic biome in general is lacking, but the saltwater side is especially lacking.)
Give umbrella thorn acacia the Asia tag (Exists in Middle East and India)
Give papyrus sedge, blackthorn bush, common water lily, Italian cypress tree, elm tree, hawthorn bush, ivy and oak tree Europe tag, and add Grassland biome as well (All of these exist across the Mediterranean)
Rename cypress to Italian or Mediterranean cypress
Add a drop down menu when creating a new zoo that allows you to choose a background that corresponds with that biome. For instance, creating a new taiga map allows you to choose between the vanilla map background, or any of the custom made scenario/campaign ones. The full list of map backgrounds that we would be able to choose to use is:
Temperate: (Goodwin house, Panda Park, Yamaguchi Prefecture, Red Barn River, Bernie Goodwin Memorial)
Tropical rainforest: None
Grasslands: (Great Caldera Safari Park, Myers Lake Island, Myers Entertainment Park)
Desert: (Mexico Conservation Park, Tanami Roadside Zoo, El Darar Bazaar)
Tundra: (Goodwin Arctic research, Karst Mire)
Taiga: None
Add at least one new map background for each continent. With the restrictions of how PZ biomes work, there are many locations that do not look accurate when trying to build a zoo in that location. For instance, trying to build a temperate deciduous forest zoo in the Eastern U.S, but the only map background is for the English countryside. Here are some of my favorite options:
Europe: Gieranger Fjord to represent Scandinavia. Almeria, or some similar place in Italy, Greece or Croatia, to better represent the Mediterranean, with which there is currently no accurate map type or background.
Oceania: New Zealand beaches to represent, well, New Zealand! None of the current maps or biomes truly represent NZ.
North America: The Great Smoky Mountains, to fix the example issue I highlighted. Also, North American Prairie, for similar reasons as the temperate biome. The current grasslands background and plants look too African savannah to convincingly look like the Great Plains.
Africa: Mount Kilimanjaro. Africa is actually quite well off, but this is so iconic that it would be an incredible background.
South America: Torres del Paine, to give some better representation to the cooler temperature areas of South America, like Chile and Argentina.
New Scenery Ideas
Topographic map items of each continent, with different depths to show either biome regions or elevation, similar to the style of the globe on the main screen. Different elevation, or biomes (whichever you decide) are flexicolor to each other (Level 1, 2, 3 etc.)
Additionally, one large world map item in this style
Focus on more cohesive theming for any statues added into a free update. What I mean by this is, instead of giving the hippo or Nile monitor for instance, a random theme for a statue, give them some statues in the theme of the new Africa pack, that way they can all be used together. Another example, give the Baird's tapir a statue that fits the SA pack theme.
I previously asked for artwork and statues to be added for animals that had no items in game, which was somewhat remedied, however it is still an issue. Here is the list of animals that have no representation at all
Aardvark, Cape Buffalo, African Wild Dog, Aldabra Giant Tortoise, Bactrian Camel, Bongo, Bonobo, Common Warthog, Formosan Black Bear, Chatham island tortoise, Gemsbok, Himalayan brown bear, Komodo dragon, Mandrill, Nile nonitor, Nyala, Okapi, Pygmy Hippo, Snow Leopard, Springbok, Thomson's Gazelle, Lehmann's dart frog, Golden dart frog, Gila monster, Yellow anaconda, Boa constrictor, Giant leaf insect, Eastern brown snake, Death adder, Giant cockroach, Goliath frog, Goliath beetle, Titan beetle, African giant snail, Lesser Antillean iguana
1-2 placeable “pond” items so we can have small water objects without actually using the terrain tools, which can be a bit hard to use for small areas. Faux rock borders that are flexicolor, as well as flexicolor water
Add fake eggs props for various in-game species (ex: Cassowary, caiman, Komodo dragon, Ostrich). Idea originally discussed with Chante in "Eggs" thread last December.
Concrete wall panels, similar to the plaster or mud ones.
A few backstage props (rakes, hoses, brushes etc)
New Game Mechanics
The ability to make 2m and 3m wide paths without using exploits involving placing queues. This should at the very least be implemented for staff paths.
Add same color variations of staff paths without the logo imposed. Also, a new or color or two, such as a sandy brown, would be great.
Ability to place trash cans on sloped paths
Add a null path option
Add null kerbs to the terrain paths
Add an option to the null barrier that allows a toggle for visibility through it.
Tone down severity of light/godrays indoors
Space apart the barriers addition and extension buttons when building barriers as they often overlap, forcing you to change angles while building, which is restrictive.
Smaller version of the walkthrough habitat gate
Null Version of both would be good as well. Option made of metal or glass would be nice but not as needed, especially if a null option is made.
Allow zookeepers to walk through flat bottomed water that is 1.5m or shallower. This will allow just a little more flexibility when creating habitats such as monkey islands.
Ability to set genetic size and stats etc. in sandbox mode
Ability to set shop boxes to null, leaving only the counter item, making easier to make custom shops and restaurants.
Change flexicolor status for an entire item group, even if they are of different materials.
Add the ability to link bench or table objects to one or more food or drink shops, to increase the chance of guests using those objects.
Add the ability to also link benches and tables to keeper talk points.
Expand base game sets to be flexicolor (ex: corrugated plastic roof, Indian sandstone, thatch roofs)
General Quality Of Life Stuff
Add animal tags to climbable trees if the animal can actually climb said object. I have noticed that not every climbing animal can climb every tree with the climbable label, which means it’s very annoying to try and have to figure this out for yourself.
Habitat land size reductions for these animals:
Australia mandates that koala habitat space is 20m^2 for a koala, with an additional 10m^2 per each new animal. The largest habitat size was around 100m^2…..PZ mandates minimum size for a Koala be 180m^2. Visual representation found here. I recommend the new minimum be 100m^2.
The AZA specifies the minimum land requirement for a pair of red pandas be at least 40m^2, with more being preferred if possible. I would recommend shrinking the land requirements to something more realistic, from 220m^2 for one animal to a new minimum of 150m^2. Keep climbing area the same.
The AZA specifies the minimum land requirements for a pair of binturongs be around 42m^2. Taking into the recommended 8-10 feet^2 (2-3m) verticality that is required, I would recommend reducing from PZ’s requirements of 182m^2 per animal, to a new minimum of 150m^2 per animal. Keep climbing area the same.
Add large and small circular billboards.
Ability to specifically turn off "About to mature" notifications
There is a game decoration that is clearly an Asian elephant that displays the name of "African elephant sign". This hasn't been fixed in over a year and a half.
Take a break from the timed challenges and just make them regular campaign maps, even if they're a simple one-off without voice acting. This is highly requested by both people on the forums, and on the PZ Reddit.
Add in TikiChicki food stores and vending machines. This was the only base game PC store that was left out of PZ base game
Consider adding the PC world’s fair stores in a free update (since they are paid dlc for PC this may be a big ask, but I don’t think people would buy a store dlc for PZ)
Food stands/carts (ala ZT2) for existing brands would also be a nice touch
Add the ability to make longer zoo names. Suggested by @macronecu originally
Add flexicolor water and flexicolor rock to the forage pool enrichment item
Add option to disable animal scarring, if not in all game modes, then at least sandbox mode
Revamped tegicam system (made into an actual feature, rather than a hidden cheat)
Add a “still water” or “slow flowing water” effect (or 2) to the game. We have plenty of options for fast moving water, such as water falls and rapids, but none for slow or still water.
Increase giant panda star appeal to be the max amount in the game. As pandas are so rare in captivity to begin with, and generally seen as "cute", their rarity and real life popularity status should be reflected as such in the game.
Decrease size of California sea lion and faux rocks hitboxes.
Add the ability to group multiple separated building groups into one larger group. This works well for free form construction items but does not exist when using grid-base building pieces and can bee very inconvenient.
Rename "Underwater box feeder" to "Underwater fish feeder". Now that there is an underwater herbivore feeder, it makes more sense to specify the difference.
Notable Bugs
Slow motion jumping for clouded leopards when climbing
Capuchin monkey facial glitch
Grid flickering with pathing and terrain during construction.
Spotted hyena black hole throat
Koala in passive climbing on a tree while being at the bottom of the trunk, so it clips into the ground.
New birch branch items have very low resolution/texture, even on ultra settings (This might just be a problem specific to me but I'm not sure why. I play on all ultra settings)
Animals swimming through barriers and walls
Added desert biome tags to cheetah, common ostrich, African wild dogs and pronghorn.
Added taiga biome tags to Formosan black bear, giant panda and American bison.
Upgraded capuchin conservation status from LC to V.
Added more statues for existing animals.
Added more art for animals by adding custom billboards.
Added different sized education boards by way of custom billboards.
Added more ambiance sounds by adding custom sound speakers.
Added staff heatmap to show where keepers can and cannot walk in habitats.
Added continent tags to all rocks, allowing them to still be used when filtering strictly by continent.
Fixed visibility issue with water/tanks by allowing custom colors and visibility.
Updated animal icon for the binturong to show the new model.
Updated African bush elephant conservation status from V to E.
Added a search bar to animal trade centers.
Added diving to polar, grizzly, sun and Formosan black bear.
Added train all staff button.
Made mesh fences see-through.
North Sulawesi Babirusa name was changed to be the appropriate species, and the distribution map is fixed to reflect this as well.
African elephant name changed to specify African Bush/Savannah Elephant.
Red kangaroos are now walkthrough.
Significantly changed diving depth restrictions for all animals.
Added diving for jaguar and the two tiger species.
Rainbow eucalyptus now has Oceania tag.
Bramble bush now have North America and Asia tags.
Added natural birch branches.
Added path kerbs and barriers.
Increased cold and snow tolerance for Bactrian camel and American bison.
Increased size groups for American alligator, both mixed and same sex.
American alligator bio no longer references saltwater crocodile.
And there you have it, the 1.8 meta-suggestions list! As a reminder, suggestions will be open for right around 2 weeks and then I will close the list, in order to give them team ample time to start thinking about what they might want to tackle next. I really appreciate all of the hard work the CM team and the dev team do respectively. It truly is incredible to me that we have gotten so much added into this game just from the continuation of this list.
As always, @Jens Erik@Eltanin Casciani@Francesca Falcini@Tim Smith , if you discuss any of these points with the dev team and they tell you something is impossible, for one reason or another, feel free to post that here and I will happily remove it! Thanks again for all the hard work you've done for us as a community.
I'm thinking they should do the same as the king penguin and allow us to have up to 500. For 1, it's a balanced number since im real-life they reach the thousands. And 2, honestly, who's gonna have 500 prairie dogs (unless they are insane)?
Wanted to add that the tortoise species should be able to soak in shallow water, as well as use the mud wallow enrichment item. Also overhaul the arboreal feeding platforms. They aren't really arboreal if you have to put them on the ground. Maybe have them work like the underwater feeder?
Also. the most appealing animal shouldn't be an animal that's in your trade center. Like right now my most appealing animal is the Aardvark, and I haven't even made them a habitat.
Yet another QoL suggestion.
When I press heart to display items marked as my favorites, close that tab, and the menu reverts into default state, so I have to press heart mark again to show my favorites. I want the favorites stay when I close that tab.
Ugh, not sure if it's already in here but honestly:
We need the ability to choose the parameters of the animals we want in sandbox!
Parameters like coat color, genetics for size, fertility, longevity, disease resistance (or at least genetic ranks, like gold animals).
I bought 200 giraffes in sandbox because I wanted albino giraffes. Nothing.
Excuse me while I have to sell off 200 giraffes, but can't, because for some reason I need to put a few dozen of them in quarantine first before I can sell them off.
This is extremely tedious. Isn't sandbox supposed to be the mode where we can build the zoo of our dreams? Shouldn't that include the perfect animals we want?
Ugh, not sure if it's already in here but honestly:
We need the ability to choose the parameters of the animals we want in sandbox!
Parameters like coat color, genetics for size, fertility, longevity, disease resistance (or at least genetic ranks, like gold animals).
I don't know if this has been requested yet, but here goes
Be able to divide the habitat, or join 2 habitats, often male and female are not kept together, it would be nice that these animals would not be able to be in the same space, but for breeding purposes there would be a gate that you could open.
Thats actually really easy to do, just put both into the same nullbarrier. That trick also works for not having to put a staff gate there, eventhough thats only really do able in sandbox, as the animals are allways thrown out where the gate is, but i love it to not have a big ugly door next to my meercats or prariedogs.
Know what else I wouldn't mind having? IRL, captivity stresses cheetahs out so much that they need emotional support dogs paired with them when they are younger. These emotional support dogs not only increase cub survival and breeding success later in life. Totally wouldn't mind the emotional support dogs being in the game. Let cheetahs have lab or other similarly sized breed in the exhibit with them, Either as a separate animal (and give them a bonus), or a package (Or a third option, lock it behind a tier of research). Buy a cheetah, get a cheetah and a dog.
Alright I don’t know if there are any rules like with the other meta-lists but here are some things I would love to see.
A better way to place the arboreal feeding platform and still have keepers access it. Even if they create a “staff ladder” we have to incorporate so the keepers can reach it while still getting the platform off the ground
More animals per group allowed for bison, zebra, wildebeest, and alligators. All of these animals live in close quarters or large groups in the wild.
More food enrichment options for some animals that only have 1-2. Primarily can think of the flamingos, Arctic fox, and
Ability to add a second gate to enclosures if they are above a certain size maybe? That way for larger more natural enclosures or multiple species enclosures keepers can still function well
The ability for keepers to walk through shallow water
On the interspecies enrichment page could they add a can safely live with but no bonus for area for animals like hippos or elephants? Doesn’t have to be all of them just animals that share their range or continent maybe?
In the animal market could we add a filter for albino/morphs so it is easier to keep track of if an animal becomes available? Would be especially nice in sandbox mode where they are harder to come by
More foliage! Please more ground cover type plants, longer grasses and more aquatic plants!!
More plants for North American grasslands. Please
Please fix the space requirement for the hippos. I rarely use them in game because of how much space they need
More color diversity in general would be great for appropriate species.
Small quality of life request - ability to turn off notifications at a more precise level e.g. I'd like to not have 'this animal is about to mature' but still have 'this animal has matured' because with the time slowed down in means you get a thousand 'this animal is about to mature' messages again and again for the same animal.
Bigger request would be a bit of an overhaul of the animal disease system because it adds nothing to the game right now. I've never had a single animal die of disease and obviously I don't want to be managing it all the time and I don't want to lose animals to them but it would be nice to be able to have it occasionally be an issue e.g. a spontaneous appearance of a disease because at the moment if the habitat is clean and you use quarantine you won't get any. Maybe some settings that would give you close control so people could set it at the difficulty they want because I know getting the balance right is difficult but honestly it would make the immunity genes more meaningful and make my animals feel more precious if there was actually a chance that you can lose them.
