I mean, the Eurasian eagle owl aviary at Edinburgh Zoo isn't all that big, but of course in captivity these animals don't really need that much room to stretch their wings.
Walkthrough Exhibits: What's Next?
- Thread starter AlexSea
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- exhibit animals
Yeah was thinking more along the lines of frontiers standard of doubling (if not more) minimum size requirements for everything. Even the Highland wildlife park up by me has a pretty small but tall aviary for it's 2 Eurasian eagle owls. For a walkthrough? I don't know never actually seen a bird of prey walkthrough (or certainly don't remember)
I have spent my evening thinking about other groups of birds that would definitely work in the walkthrough exhibit and could all be fairly easily made from a single model, and have settled on a collection of small birds comprising finches, buntings and tanagers. I have chosen one each for the six continents with such birds:
From North and Central America and the Caribbean is the painted bunting. It is not that common in captivity, but still has a presence in zoos (six here in Europe) and is kept in walkthrough displays. Their in-game biomes would probably be grassland, temperate and tropical.
From South America is the saffron finch, actually a very finch-like species of tanager. Slightly more common in captivity than the bunting, they have bright yellow plumage that makes them appear to be canary-like. Although often kept in rainforest displays in zoos, it is a bird of the grassland biome outside the Amazon Basin.
The third species is the European greenfinch, which occurs throughout Europe, parts of west and central Asia and in north Africa. Surprisingly common in captivity, Zootierliste records it being kept in 40 European and 3 Israeli zoos. Biomes would be both grassland and temperate.
Occurring in a band extending across Africa, from west to east, just south of the Sahara, is the red-cheeked cordon-bleu. It is not common in captivity, but is widespread in zoos. They would add a unique blue-and-pink plumage unusual among birds. The biome would almost certainly solely be grassland.
From Southeast Asia comes the Java sparrow. While not the prettiest species on my list, with its mostly grey plumage, they are an Endangered bird and are also very common in captivity - Zootierliste records 160 zoos with the species in Europe, New Caledonia, Israel, New Zealand and Singapore. Biomes would be grassland and tropical.
Finally, from northern Australia is one of the most recognisable and best-known of the finches, the gouldian finch. They are commonly-kept cagebirds, and Zootierliste records 107 places keeping them, in Europe, Israel, New Zealand and the UAE. I think the only in-game biome it would inhabit is grassland. It would be a bonus if they came with all three wild-type head colour variants (yellow, red and black, as seen below); if only one were possible I would probably choose the red-headed variant.
And with that, you'd have six beautiful birds that could all fit in to almost any part of a zoo and add a lot of colour and sound in the process.
From North and Central America and the Caribbean is the painted bunting. It is not that common in captivity, but still has a presence in zoos (six here in Europe) and is kept in walkthrough displays. Their in-game biomes would probably be grassland, temperate and tropical.
From South America is the saffron finch, actually a very finch-like species of tanager. Slightly more common in captivity than the bunting, they have bright yellow plumage that makes them appear to be canary-like. Although often kept in rainforest displays in zoos, it is a bird of the grassland biome outside the Amazon Basin.
The third species is the European greenfinch, which occurs throughout Europe, parts of west and central Asia and in north Africa. Surprisingly common in captivity, Zootierliste records it being kept in 40 European and 3 Israeli zoos. Biomes would be both grassland and temperate.
Occurring in a band extending across Africa, from west to east, just south of the Sahara, is the red-cheeked cordon-bleu. It is not common in captivity, but is widespread in zoos. They would add a unique blue-and-pink plumage unusual among birds. The biome would almost certainly solely be grassland.
From Southeast Asia comes the Java sparrow. While not the prettiest species on my list, with its mostly grey plumage, they are an Endangered bird and are also very common in captivity - Zootierliste records 160 zoos with the species in Europe, New Caledonia, Israel, New Zealand and Singapore. Biomes would be grassland and tropical.
Finally, from northern Australia is one of the most recognisable and best-known of the finches, the gouldian finch. They are commonly-kept cagebirds, and Zootierliste records 107 places keeping them, in Europe, Israel, New Zealand and the UAE. I think the only in-game biome it would inhabit is grassland. It would be a bonus if they came with all three wild-type head colour variants (yellow, red and black, as seen below); if only one were possible I would probably choose the red-headed variant.
And with that, you'd have six beautiful birds that could all fit in to almost any part of a zoo and add a lot of colour and sound in the process.
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Weaver birds I am really starting to hope for. Especially since they could show up with more than one species perhaps.
And the bats got those bat ''houses'', so I could see them do nests for these instead.
A few other examples:
-Bee-eaters
-Inca terns, but maybe they would need some kind of water area added to the exhibit, their loops could interact with.
And the bats got those bat ''houses'', so I could see them do nests for these instead.
A few other examples:
-Bee-eaters
-Inca terns, but maybe they would need some kind of water area added to the exhibit, their loops could interact with.
Those birds look wonderful! It seems the only thing uniting them is their link to the Grasslands biome though. I hope we can get them in game through a single DLC, so I hope their ship has not sailed with the passing of the Grasslands Animal Pack. I’m sure there are more oddball themes that can unite these birds and bring them into the game!
It's the closest thing we have to an aviary so far. It's more logical to speculate around the facility we have rather than speculating about facilities we might never have.That's a good one. I can imagine one side of the WE being a water pool. I picture a similar thing for puffins, too.
Ah my local parrot i see.
If we dont get pidgeons those will do just fine as local german birds
If we get pheasents and water fowl as exhibit animals im gonna riot
Agree. I think the current WE is really just doable for small creatures that occur in big numbers, unless they really lengthen up those loops. With a lot of individuals you dont notice the loop repeats too much
Speaking of loops, I wonder if it would be cleaner if a larger bird, like say a macaw, had several loops that it could cycle through randomly. So if we start at Point A, which could be a perch, then one loop could be A-B, where the macaw jumps or climbs to a toy and plays with it, and another could be A-C where the macaw flies across the exhibit to a seed bell or something, and then another could be A-D, where the macaw lands on a branch near the path to do some preening. Then they could also go B-C, B-D, C-D, C-B, D-A, and so on.
That way it's still looped but less obviously.
Yeah, thought about something similar a while ago where you basicly have different "stations" to place around more freely. One station being so kind of feeder where the macaw flys to plays an animation an than moves towards a random other station be it a perch, toy or what have you.
In no game developer, so i have no idea if something like this would be possible, but it would be an upgrade from the WE to make it more customisable
I think I said this in the spring 2023 dlc speculation: The new exibith opens many gates of possibilities like many species sharing a rig, models and different textures.
Macaws, parrots, toucans, bird of paradise, hornbills, etc...these have a same morphology with low edits and different textures. We can have like 4 macaw species easily in a rainforest animal pack.
Macaws, parrots, toucans, bird of paradise, hornbills, etc...these have a same morphology with low edits and different textures. We can have like 4 macaw species easily in a rainforest animal pack.
Conceptually true, but currently it seems like Frontier is sticking to smaller species that live in large groups where the looped animations are less egregious. Compare a handful of bats to a full group and the loops look janky as hell; since zoos don't often keep macaws in massive flocks (and the WE is too small for such a realistic group anyway) there's the possibility that they'll be left out of this particular facility. I mean, macaws in zoos barely fly anyway.
In terms of birds I'm only expecting to eventually see things like finches, hummingbirds, lorikeets and lories, lovebirds, etc.
One can speculate, but immediately push almost all the birds there? After all, after Twilight Pack people wrote that owls and other large birds will be in this facility... Excluding eagles, vultures, etc.
I want birds too, but just Walkthrough Exhibits seem "not right" for me for all species of birds. Other than small parrots, "smaller birds" and hummingbirds, I don't see anything else here.
At least at this point in the game, as it is designed.
This is what I meant.
In that regard, I agree. I can only speak for myself - I'm pushing for smaller, flocking birds (lorikeets, hummingbirds, etc.) that would fit the mould quite nicely. The only 'large' bird I advocate for is the kea, but that's because it is almost exclusively a walkthrough animal in New Zealand and not having it as such in the game would feel like a waste.
Seeing that frontier doesn’t want to break their traditional formula of 7+1 or 4+1. If they would kindly make the 1 divided by 5 in the future like they are doing with butterfly’s I’d be so happy.
Now i somehow get an island vibe for our next dlc, if it’s a build dlc or animal dlc (dlc pattern is different atm) I think it is time for birds, in particular parrots.
Lorikeets
Kea
Imperial parrot
Not too familiar with the many parrot species but I’d say parrots that are at least close in size and from islands etc.
We could also get bigger and go with macaws provided we can get 5 of equal or close enough size.
Now i somehow get an island vibe for our next dlc, if it’s a build dlc or animal dlc (dlc pattern is different atm) I think it is time for birds, in particular parrots.
Lorikeets
Kea
Imperial parrot
Not too familiar with the many parrot species but I’d say parrots that are at least close in size and from islands etc.
We could also get bigger and go with macaws provided we can get 5 of equal or close enough size.
I'm starting to want barn swallows. Not much of a zoo animal, but placing an exhibit with none-options on the walls over a grassy field could look good. And their fly pattern should be good for loops.
I hope we get an option to mix small exhibit animals in with the walkthrough (and then give an option to have big exhibits NOT walkthrough - for venomous animals). Even if its just the same template, without the glass. Being able to put their areas "free" in a bigger exhibit would allow us to make rainforest houses. That is my absolute dream
Controversial (maybe), but I kinda hope we get budgerigars as a future option. Naturally, they come in green, but then we'd have all the other color forms (kinda like the axolotls).
Partly for this is because they live in huge flocks, are an Australian icon (although most probably don't even know that they come from Australia), and also, my best friend loves these birds; she has so many and I'd love to make an aviary dedicated to her
Partly for this is because they live in huge flocks, are an Australian icon (although most probably don't even know that they come from Australia), and also, my best friend loves these birds; she has so many and I'd love to make an aviary dedicated to her