Free Update Idears

[iloveyourzoos]

More color variation types for more animals (like we have for the European Fallow Deer).
Ability to change an animal's name from the Trade Center/Storage area.
Fix the "Trade History" screen in Franchise. It often shows only a few trades, rather than all of the recent ones.
Recalibrate the Franchise Community Challenges -- listing the number of animals needed, adjusting the difficulty levels so they don't swing between being so easy they're done in a single day, and so hard they're never close to being completed.

 

[Britches]

* Ability to feed caught pickpockets, vandalizers and guests throwing litter everywhere to the crocodiles.

... ... ... what?

 

[Aramar]

My ideas for future updates are mostly small things:

-Fixing all the errors of the education boards (I have made many reports on the issue tracker on that)

-Adding the Asia tag to the puff adder. I've been clamouring for this for ages.

-Adding the button to give contraception to all exhibit animals in a box (like we have the button for habitat animals)

-Reducing space requirements for hippos

-More path textures

-Adding burrows to foxes, brachiation to orangutans and chimps/bonobos and diving to Nile monitor (and maybe tapirs)

-Being able to change colour of staff uniforms

-Hotels

-Adding existing enrichment items to more animals

-Scratching trees for all biomes

And finally, a big free update: the exhibit revamp with different sizes.

 

[Tyrian]

+1 for Moooaaar Foliage (Dry grass would be cool)
Maybe also resizable or mirrorable objects would be cool

 

[Fini]

+1 for Moooaaar Foliage (Dry grass would be cool)
Maybe also resizable or mirrorable objects would be cool

and bushes
and hedges, that don't look like they're made out of plastic

 

[TuchA]

Do you know what I just remembered? Do you remember the update 1.3 ? Australia, animal colors, Vending Machines (that stuff). I will send a picture of a part of the update. You can see?

They worked on flamingos, the European pack introduced colors for fallow deer and badgers.... I know it's been a long time, but since they were working on something, maybe it's time to make this change? Maybe they will introduce more animation for animals now. This update focused on humans, maybe now it will focus on animals (new deep dives, colors, etc.).

Personally, I doubt that this will come now.... but never say never.

 

[MetalMaster1990]

I have quite a few

• Fix the glitchy climbing mechanics and give braciation to the Great Apes
• Give deep diving to the Nile Monitor and the Tapirs
• Add the other food and drink stands from PC
• Entertainer empolyees from PC(dressed as animals for PZ)
• More customization for the exhibits/make the insect House added in the Conservation Pack to actually be able to house the Exhibit Insects! And different sizes of exhibits
• Additional Color morphs for certain animals(Ie: Strawberry and Snow White tigers)
• Interspecies Enrichment overhaul(Make the animals that have an IE bonus with each other interact and add additional IE bonus to animals ommitted[IE the Siamang with the Malayan Tapir and the ASCO and the African Elephant with all the Savannah animals])
• Pathing Overhaul(Fix the pathing and give us flexicolor pathing)
• reworks for the West african Lion, Borneon Orangutan, Western Chimpanzee, Himalayan Brown Bear and Malayan Tapir
• More guest facilities/mechanics(Ie: Elevators, Playgrounds, face painting stations as well as more education stations)
• Increase the maximum group size for the Reindeer
• make both burrows flexicolor(mostly so Arctic foxes can have "Snow Burrows") and add the Chinese Pangolin, the foxes, African Penguin as well as the other animals that can burrow
• add the chorus behavior to more animals(I'd start with the Lemurs or perhaps the Lion as it is the Posterboy of the game)
• add actual interactions between guests and the animals(feeding and such)
• add more themed food truck shells
• game modes for all the types of staff(And more timed scenarios)!
• More transportation options like Ski lifts and tour buses with educator tours

 

[MetalMaster1990]

Do you know what I just remembered? Do you remember the update 1.3 ? Australia, animal colors, Vending Machines (that stuff). I will send a picture of a part of the update. You can see?

View attachment 320913

They worked on flamingos, the European pack introduced colors for fallow deer and badgers.... I know it's been a long time, but since they were working on something, maybe it's time to make this change? Maybe they will introduce more animation for animals now. This update focused on humans, maybe now it will focus on animals (new deep dives, colors, etc.).

Personally, I doubt that this will come now.... but never say never.

With the Ostriches, they can totally make the colormorphs with the North African, Somali, and Masai ostriches instead of adding new species.

 

[TheYeti]

• New animal behaviours (flying and fully aquatic would be amazing but others are welcome too)
• Playgrounds
• Triangular mesh pieces and net pieces
• Zoo Map with the same functions as in ZT2
• Guests able to feed animals
• 2 and 3m guest and staff paths
• New transport rides
• Flexicolour rock pieces
• Flexicolour paths
• Flexicolour sandstone and some other themes

 

[MetalMaster1990]

I have quite a few

• Fix the glitchy climbing mechanics and give braciation to the Great Apes
• Give deep diving to the Nile Monitor and the Tapirs
• Add the other food and drink stands from PC
• Entertainer empolyees from PC(dressed as animals for PZ)
• More customization for the exhibits/make the insect House added in the Conservation Pack to actually be able to house the Exhibit Insects! And different sizes of exhibits
• Additional Color morphs for certain animals(Ie: Strawberry and Snow White tigers)
• Interspecies Enrichment overhaul(Make the animals that have an IE bonus with each other interact and add additional IE bonus to animals ommitted[IE the Siamang with the Malayan Tapir and the ASCO and the African Elephant with all the Savannah animals])
• Pathing Overhaul(Fix the pathing and give us flexicolor pathing)
• reworks for the West african Lion, Borneon Orangutan, Western Chimpanzee, Himalayan Brown Bear and Malayan Tapir
• More guest facilities/mechanics(Ie: Elevators, Playgrounds, face painting stations as well as more education stations)
• Increase the maximum group size for the Reindeer
• make both burrows flexicolor(mostly so Arctic foxes can have "Snow Burrows") and add the Chinese Pangolin, the foxes, African Penguin as well as the other animals that can burrow
• add the chorus behavior to more animals(I'd start with the Lemurs or perhaps the Lion as it is the Posterboy of the game)
• add actual interactions between guests and the animals(feeding and such)
• add more themed food truck shells
• game modes for all the types of staff(And more timed scenarios)!
• More transportation options like Ski lifts and tour buses with educator tours

Oh also A mechanic where tree dwellers(big cats, primates, etc) can sleep in/use trees as shelter

 

[FlameWizard492]

Playgrounds? Kiddie rides?

 

[MetalMaster1990]

Playgrounds? Kiddie rides?

Animal themed Carousel!

 

[markun]

I think it would be great to have all the key facilities like keeper huts, staff rooms, trade centres, quarantine etc as simple squares that you can stick inside your own building. I know you can hide them but sometimes they are an awkward height and it would be good to have something easier to place.

 

[snoogins]

• Fix animal models, especially for malayan tapir
• More mesh and netting pieces
• Add brachiation to apes
• Add deep dive to nile monitor, tapirs and elephants
• More behaviors, personalities and unique animations for animals
• Allow more variety in what animals use enrichment items ( for example tortoises should be able to use the pool and mud wallow)
• More statues and consistent signage for all species
• Add natural history themed props (taxidermized animals, cases of pinned bugs, skeletons, etc)
• Add a station training mechanic for animals that would work similar to vista points. Place a station and animals get rewarded for food by a keeper or educator for standing at it and would boost education and visibility for guests.
• More ground birds or even flying birds
• Marine animals
• More grasses and shrubs
• Smooth out climbing and diving animations
• Make the underwater feeders display the food again, they don't show fish anymore.
• More naturalistic enrichment items
• Complete exhibit overhall. More sizes and more in depth modular customization.
• Petting zoo and children's rides
• Add an animal ambassador mechanic for educators with customizable animals. This could be good for animals that people want in the game but don't really work as an exhibit or habitat animal. Educator or Keeper can carry around a parrot or a kinkajou or something and give a talk about them.
• More special effects and ambient sounds (bird and insect calls, environmental ambience, schools of fish, etc)
• Make the screens compatible with the webcams. The burrow cam is cool but I wish the webcams worked the same way. They don't really do anything.

 

[MMaire]

I allow myself a small update of my ideas, re-organize by themes, and take up some of yours :

GUEST ACTIVITIES

• Addition of the mechanics of Hotels with the possibility of making immersive rooms/lodges overlooking the habitats of animals.
• Addition of a pet farm as part of a free animal update (birthday?) with a few varied species such as Nubian Goat, Alpaca, Vietnam Pig, Miniature Donkey, Flander Giant Rabbits, Zebus, Chickens. Give visitors the opportunity to interact with them.
• Allow visitors to feed certain species, via paying food distributors or educator's animations (feeding giraffes for example).
• Create a play area set for children, including: Slide, turnstile, climbing structure, swings, spring, water jets, carousel, zip line.
• Add more interactive educational elements for children, with more different species of animals.
• Add a "Cinema" type building where films about the animal world can be played.
• Add souvenir shops
• Add make-up points
• Addition of a mechanic concerning the accessibility of disabled people, add disabled guests (wheelchair). Addition of elevators accordingly. Accessibility could become an issue of franchise visitor satisfaction and raise the challenge a bit around this mode.
• Addition of a souvenir photo booth stand and/or decorative elements in front of which visitors can take photos.
• Added a traveling candy vendor.
• Addition of audio guide rental.
• Added a boat rental stand to create activities on the lakes.
• Added hot hair balloon as new attraction
• Add in info building the possibility of annual passport purchase, source of additional income.

PATHS

• Allow to force a visit route either via a dedicated tool, or by using a "direction of visit" panel.
• Allow to decide the direction of circulation of a path.
• Add null path (guests and staffs paths).
• Add to the path system a special "place" settings.
• Add special paths for a new vehicles attraction.
• Add hanging rope bridges paths for visitors
• Make all paths flexicolor !

RESTAURANTS / FOOD TRUCKS

• Give existing restaurants more different menus and more customization of what is cooked and eaten there.
• Transpose all restaurants and vendors from PC to PZ
• Think about typical offers from different regions of the world (Indian, Chinese, Japanese, European, American cuisine, etc.) in order to be able to create themed restaurants in the geographical areas of the zoo.
• Added street water fountain for drinking.

STAFF AND FACILITIES

• Addition of a biogaz factory (methanisation) to produce electricity from animal waste.
• Add animations of medical training by veterinarians, keepers or/and educators
• Added a traveling photographer as a staff member, he takes pictures of people with a parrot
• Addition of a Local a Compost operating on the same principle as that of ZT (It makes money! )
• Added "Mascot" employee with multiple animal costumes available
• Allow to change the color of staff uniforms and add option that would be linked to the work area (one color per area for example).
• Add to the concept of Safari a variant with a bus and not a car, and an educator inside.
• Added turrets that educators can climb on to feed the animals.
• Addition of a Nursery
• Added more realistic wind turbine to generate electricity
• Small golf caddy-type vehicles to speed up the movement of staff, If it is complicated to coexist with visitors, make it usable only on paths dedicated to staff

DECOR & PROPS

• Add a Natural History Museum type decoration set, inspired by the Natural History Museum in London (Skeletons, Showcases, Taxidermy, Fossils)
• Add Halloween decorations
• Add Easter decorations
• Re-adapt the cable cars with a more rustic and less modern variant.
• Added different flag elements waving in the wind, which we could customize as screens
• Addition of some additional screen sizes and different shapes (circle screen in particular)
• Added beehives and honeycombs
• Additions of garden birdhouse
• Added straw bale prop, hay...
• Allow adding fish to rivers via effect tools.
• Addition of mulch parts for enclosures (thorns, straws, bark...)
• Addition of a set specifically for animal backstage environments (sliding doors, secure food tray for wild animals, etc.)
• Add tiny plant garden type signs to name the plants featured in the zoo.
• Addition of a set specifically for realism around safety (extinguishers, emergency exit...)
• Create wooden and rope versions of siamang climbing enrichment items.
• Added scenery elements for Nocturnal House (caves...) and allowing complete darkness.
• Make effect items flexicolor and allow to make them null

FOLIAGES, ROCKS, ETC

• Add the brush tool to quickly create biomes including rocks and plants in a region. With different sliders to adapt the settings between region and biome, more/no plants, more/no rocks...
• Add the brush tool to quickly create stream and small waterfalls
• Add variants of burrows included in trees, rocks, with blueprints.

VIVARIUM EXHIBITIONS

• Revise the Vivarium animal system by adding variants of vivariums box sizes
• Allow small mammals, such as marmosets, to be exhibited in this type of box.
• Free Anaconda and Iguana from the Vivariums to make them habitats animals.

NEW EXHIBITIONS TYPES

• Addition on the principle of exhibition boxes, of a butterfly greenhouse.
• Addition on the principle of exhibition boxes, aquariums for small fish, jellyfish, seahorses.
• Addition on the principle of exhibition boxes, of a contact pool. for rays, small sharks
• Addition of aviaries... with contacts aviaries !

ANIMALS BEHAVIOR

• Allow red pandas and Asian otters to share their habitat.
• Allow Orangutans and Asian otters to share their habitat.
• Add stump den enrichment for some animals
• To make the leuristic or albino animals presented in many parks as a species in their own right, as species in their own right (white tigers, white lions, black jaguar, etc.)
• Allow reindeers and bisons to have a larger herd.
• Completely revamp climbing and allow more animals to climb the rocks.
• Add predefined animated enhancements such as "tree branches to rest on".
• Swimming for the Malayan Tapir, the Elephant and the Nile Monitor.
• Review the Malay Tapir model.
• Burrow for the Arctic Fox and Penguins.
• Create pack behaviors, species interactions, and mother/baby behavior.
• Add more food dispensers especially racks for ungulates.
• Add behaviors between animals and keepers.
• Add the behavior of curiosity towards visitors for certain species (great apes in particular)
• Add nocturnal behaviors, certains species needs more darkness
• Add animation of peeing, depositing smells
• Add spawning behavior
• Add stress behavior and stereotopy (running in circles in its enclosure, for example) for animals that do not have enough space
• Add hiding behavior (the animal hides in bushes, for example)
• Add scratch trees for all biomes

 

[Bughs]

I was about to create this kind of Discussion but Forum showed me this Discussion exists already, here
Wow, I love all your ideas really!

My ideas about Free Updates:

EASY​

• More of the realistic statues of animals
  This would be almost no work for the developers. They already have the animals and all they have to do is to pause some animation and give it stone texture, just like we have the statues from Careers. However we still have only few of the animals and also in each DLC you get a statue of only ONE of the animals in it (plus sometimes very thematic and stylised statues or pictures). I wouldn't mind if any else would just stay basic stone (lacking the silver and gold version from Careers)
• Taxiderming of animals that passed away
  Even if I would love to have some skeleton statues as decorations in the zoo, it would require a lot of work for the developers. Instead, easier way would be being able to taxidermise our animals that died. I know some zoos keep furs, bodies or skeletons of their favourite animals for display with a little story about them. And if not like that, maybe just being able to buy some stuffed models (real of fake) as decorations.
• More types of fur color
  During European DLC they were happily announcing finally more than one extra mutation for each species, yet we didn't really saw them use it much further. At least melanism and leucism/albino on each animal, it's not that hard to reskin a texture into dark one or light one. And also, animal like zebra to have more than three types of stripes as zebra is known for the pattern to be never the same, which I know can't be done, but at least, when it's just black and white stripes, make more types so it doesn't look that same (and please FIX the albino zebra, the stripes are wrong, someone completelly inverted where whe white and where the stripe should be). It's a little work and it would make people happier than a camera control in the last one, imo.
• Little cars for employees
  With bigger zoo there is bigger problem with getting employees where they are needed in time. Usually that is dealth with by hiring more employees and giving them dedicated zones but cars could solve problems with bigger zoos better. Of course, you would have to research them first and maybe you would have to pay for the gas depending on how much they are used. Maybe you could upgrade them to electric to lower the price for them. They could have either drive only through dedicated path, like for example is the path for employees where quests are not walking, or they could simply go through any path and the guests would automatically move asside similarly like in JWE, which is also Frontier's game so they would know what they are doing, to prevent it from being stuck compared to how employees tend to get stuck between quests in crowded path. It would be very welcomed new addition to the zoo and I don't think it would be that hard to implement since it would be technically just faster moving employee with a modelled car around them which doesn't do anything than rotating it's front wheels and opening the doors.
• Terrain colors from all biomes
  I think this frustrates many players who are desperate to make nice green grass on desert maps, or for various of reasons. I guess you could have to research it first to make it more hard, but really this should be one of the easiest things to implement for free.
• Null/unvisible path for rides like boats and safari car
  I know I need to see where does the road go when I am building it but when it's finished in the zoo it looks weird to have that metallic road for the cars in safari, and metallic pole for a boat. It's just too visible and unappealing, it would be nice to be able to toggle this off.

MEDIUM​

• Animal antlers/horns/lion mane depending on it's overal rating
  Red deer, moose, oryx, all having the same mighty antlers/horns no matter if bronze or gold. There could be some realistic variety if bronze moose (or lower) had much smaller and less appealing antlers than a golden ranked one. Make it's speciall appeal stand out! Same for lion mane, it could be less or more majestic. It is not an easy job to add extra models for the animals but it would be only on the few where it could be visible (like I said, animals with big antlers or horns)
• Enlarging exhibits by placing them next to each other
  I don't know how hard or easy it would be to implement making exhibits bigger by merging two exhibits built next to each other (which would you set up yourself, you could still be able to place two different ones next to each other). It could fit more animals or simply look better with the less animals in it, you could put each enrichment on different of the boxes so it doesn't look all the same. It could solve the problem with the future big "walk through" exhibits which cannot be used for animals which shouldn't be "walk through". And maybe you would have to research this function first?
• More types of barriers
  It's like developers forgot these exists. It's cool we have that null barriers and we can use almost any object instead of the barriers, but when you begin with a new zoo or you don't have much building skills or time/patience to create some decent ones, you grab the base barriers you have (and what you have the repairmen feature for). But it's getting sad that we didn't get much more barriers since the beta. Where are wooden fences? Wide glass? Rocky/fake rock fences, bamboo fences, whatever? It would be also much easier for the game/ram to load a nice wooden in-game barrier than the barrier made from fifty tiny props copied twenty times around the exhibit AND across the rest of the entire zoo.
• More enrichment and/or types of feeding/drinking place
  We used to always get new enrichment for new animals each DLC but since few DLCs already it stopped. I guess completelly new enrichments for animals to interract with is way too much to ask for free now as they didn't appear in payed DLC, but at least the existing ones could get some new cosmetics. More scratching posts looking like a wood pile or a tree? Feeding plates are also stuck with it's basic metallic block design. I guess they have to stay the same for functionality reasons but a slight cosmetics of changing color, design or changing shape into a circle wouldn't be that much of a work.
• More props like from Conservation Pack
  I guess I don't have to explain much here, props and props, tiny objects for details in a daily life in a zoo. I personally miss some sign props which looks like signs saying something but it's so small you can't read it but you can pretend guests are having some info said about certain object you put the sign on. Or at least custom signs in smaller size which doesn't need electricity to run and doesn't emit light, like the ones we have right now.

HARD​

• Trot for animals
  I am not sure if I just looked wrongly or if it's really not a thing, but why there is no trot animation for animals? All they do is either they walk slowly or suddenly run for their lives towards a food, drink, shelter etc. It's not even some light canter, it's their full speed which can look weird after awhile when they constantly spam the animation. Trotting animals would look more real but this would be hard for the animators to do this for every single animal or at least most of them.
• When animal is unhappy, make it look unhappy and vice versa
  Animal happiness is a big gameplay factor in PlanetZoo yet I've noticed no matter how happy or unhappy the animal is, it behaves the same. Even guests say "the animal looks unhappy/bored/lonely" but you would never guessed if it was not for the game indicators. There could be an animal just standing sad, head down, staring, walking slowly and not doing much, eating less or something, maybe even doing some animations of distress, bad habits and such like walking in circles, digging the ground, you get the idea. And then when the animal is happy, it could be programmed to perform animations more often, if we had some, some happy jumping, rolling, interacting with others, playing more often, walking more energetic. But as you can see, this would not be an easy job to imply into the game. Maybe I'm wrong but I feel it's too far.
• Dealing with the waste
  This would be a gameplay changing/challenging feature which would add an extra problem next to dealing with the electricity. Imagine all the garbage and bio waste needs to go somewhere and you have to pay for it to be dealt with. Keepers and tailors would have those little carts or cars mentioned above, and they would go put the waste from exhibits into a dedicated place, which would need to be away from the guests so it doesn't have a negative effect on them, and you would choose how often it would be taken away from the zoo depending on how fast it fills up, and how much money would it cost. You could research bigger bins for quests, then the ones for sorting waste which would for example lower the money for taking it away from the zoo.
• Herd/pack behaviour
  I don't know much how to explain but for example, when having a big space in a habitat, herd animals could make rather two different groups than two males constantly killing each other for one, aka zebras being one male with max of 7 females, and any female above the number would get to the other male in the habitat. Animal groups keeping smaller distance from each other, so when having safari they won't scatter around the map and don't tangle between the legs of other species. Eating together, drinking together, sleeping together. Grouping animals also having more animations of interacting with each other compared to loners animals not having such animations needed. I don't know how hard it is to program it and I guess it would not be an easy task but I've seen it implemented nicely in games 20 years ago, so there might be a way how to do it even easier/faster than before.

...I hope I didn't forget something, if I did I will add stuff later XD

 

[Bughs]

Trot for animals

I've just seen the new Arid pack animals review and I saw the somali wild ass is actually TROTTING. I was squealing in happiness to see this, it was so cute and realistic. I am not sure if it ALSO canters though. It would be so cool to see with other animals too...

 

[NZFanatic]

but really this should be one of the easiest things to implement for free.

Lol it's literally impossible to do. The game's engine can't handle more than 8 terrain textures. Best they can give us is the ability to choose which eight textures prior to loading the map, but Planet Coaster had the exact same limitation.

 

[Marvinb]

Lol it's literally impossible to do. The game's engine can't handle more than 8 terrain textures. Best they can give us is the ability to choose which eight textures prior to loading the map, but Planet Coaster had the exact same limitation.

I think they could just add pieces like they did with the mulch or grass panels
Those things with as sand, earth etc variants would be super usefull

 

[NZFanatic]

I think they could just add pieces like they did with the mulch or grass panels
Those things with as sand, earth etc variants would be super usefull

I agree. I'd also like panels with the path textures on them, to hide little gaps and such.