Gonna copy over all the features I had suggested in my post a while back;
Zookeeper mode
One feature that we all miss from the old Zoo Tycoon games- zookeeper mode. The ability to actually participate in your zoo’s upkeep- feeding your animals, brushing them, interacting with your physical zoo- this made the game feel much closer, instead of being a bodiless floating soul. This could also be great for giving us more reasons to customize our player characters- that right now just randomly appear in your zoo sometimes and are otherwise barely ever actually seen. Could add a lot to the game by having a much better unlocks and rewards system for unlocking new skins, clothes, etc. for your player, instead of just a few hats. Imagine being able to pet your animals!
Another feature that can finally come back with Zookeeper mode: Golf Karts and vehicles! I’m sure many remember Frontier’s ZTUAC- it had awesome golf karts where you could even play with friends- Much fun can be had crashing around and goofing in a golf kart. It’s a great way to traverse your zoo while in first person mode.
Better time scale
Ever since the beta, people have complained about the game’s quick pacing. Animals die too fast- you don’t even get to feel attached to them. Forget about the game for an hour and hundreds of generations of your exhibit animals have been born and died and been replaced. Your zookeeper struggled to feed your animals before they starved while just running back and forth from the exhibit and the keeper hut. A typical game save can easily reach 200 years of age- that’s ridiculous, especially when a game like planet coaster had even slower time- a game where time doesn’t matter because it’s not focused on animals that die with time. Time should mean more. Age time scale options were added- but they just feel fake considering everything else continues at the same pace. I think the default speed of the game should definitely be slowed down- give your zookeepers time to do nothing. Specially if there’s going to be a zookeeper mode- so that the player doesn’t have to dart from place to place all the time instead of focusing on experiencing their zoo. Make it so reaching 5 years in your save file feels like a great milestone- not something you accomplished in one single hour of gameplay.
Animal market UI improvements
As Planet Zoo expands its roster, the animal trading UI makes less and less sense with hundreds of different animals. If you don’t have the exact animal’s name in mind, you’re going to have a hard time scrolling through the entire list to see what animals you have available. This is why I think the animal trading UI should be reworked. Instead of giving you an 18 pages long list of individuals to buy, start with organizing all the species into categories and tags, and show you the animal thumbnails before showing you the individuals to buy- selecting the animal would show you the available individuals to purchase. Some ideal categories could be:
-Biome (Desert, Tundra, Temperate, etc.)
-Region (America, Europe, Australia, etc.)
-Taxonomic Class (Mammals, Reptiles, Birds, etc.)
-Conservation status (Least concern, endangered, critically endangered, etc.)
So basically, when you click on the animal market, you’d be shown which of these categories you want to enable in your list. By not displaying the individuals’ information, you could use that space to display more species. When the user clicks on one of the species, then they get the individuals on a new section- from which they can buy whichever ones they choose.
Oh, and please, a better franchise storage system because it’s just impossible to manage once you have too many and it forces you to dump them all in one random zoo just to free up space.
Here’s a mockup of a possible new UI with category organization:
We would have categories/tags to enable/disable, a list of species that fit those tags, we could then select a species and it would show us basic but important information, and from there we could select an individual and have it's information pop up to the right like the image.
Obviously this could use a lot of improvements like more tags, and better design, but just to show how we could be able to see a lot more animals than we currently can, and also sort by animal tags.
One other thing is that for sandbox, players will definitely want to be able to place down animals without requiring to send them to a habitat from a trade center, and also customizing the genes, so please add options for that when in sandbox mode, allowing you to place animals directly in the habitat and as many as you want, wherever you want.
Multiplayer/franchise features
Franchise mode as a concept is very cool. Being able to interact with other players gives it an economic sense unlike the other modes- but in that regard it’s actually missing a lot. One big and obvious thing is trading- you can sell your animals to other players by trying to coordinate with them- but it’s pretty difficult and you can easily get sniped. That’s why Frontier should introduce actual trading- and perhaps even a friends list. Enabling you to trade directly with friends, and for example exchanging animals or credits or both for another player’s animals.
Co-op. A mode that could revolutionize fun in Planet Zoo. Using zookeeper mode- imagine if you could buy tickets and visit your friend’s zoos, your friends could give you a tour- or you could goof around and race in golf karts. You could also add the ability to have a zookeeper “third person mode” by adding a drone vehicle- which would allow you and other players to fly around and know where the others are. This could add a lot of new fun to Planet Zoo multiplayer that would truly make it a game to remember.
This could integrate really well with Franchise multiplayer features- you could allow people to allow anyone to visit their zoo- basically like the workshop- and doing so rewards the creator’s franchise zoo. Imagine a leaderboard of popular zoos, where content creators could showcase their creations- Imagine watching a time-lapse and being able to visit them and reward their franchise- Imagine youtubers bringing more people to the game by allowing everyone to visit their zoo. It would bring a lot of new players and fun to Planet Zoo. Visiting popular zoos would be a great place to find zoo ideas and seeing what people can create with advanced building tools.
Zoo Progression
Right now, in the regular modes, there’s barely any progression to be made in a zoo. The only thing limiting you is money. If you place down one animal and wait long enough to get money from it, you can immediately place down a lion or an elephant. You can place down a critically endangered animal even if you’ve never even cared for anything, and have animals with 0 welfare. For that reason, I think we need a new mode of progression- much like the original ZT games, starting with simpler animals and earning permits for the rarer, more popular animals as you progress through achievements in the save file and earn more stars for your zoo. That way earning new stars and improving the quality of your zoo feels like it’s worth it- not that you just… got a shiny star and no actual reward for it. Make Planet Zoo feel more like a GAME.
Sandbox of course would still skip this progression.
Better challenges
Missions are often ignored and not without reason, they can become boresome, as they are often just things that you were already doing but with X animal. We need real challenges and missions that get you to do new stuff- not just rewarding you for doing well in what you were already doing. ZT2 had many fun missions, like having you enter a photo contest, trying to impress a celebrity in the park, having to take care of an animal that was sent in by another zoo, getting scammed by an animal dealer and suddenly having to take care of a random animal… many fun ways to spice up the gameplay that’s already there, instead of just saying “breed 7 pandas”.
Animal Model Variation
Animals already have some great variation features. The colourmorphs, which add different skin textures such as albinos. The marking system, which randomizes the markings on different sections. The colour variation, which slightly changes the hue, saturation, and brightness of the animal. These are great for changing the texture of the animal, but they’re missing one big thing. Model variation.
Model variation could truly make every animal unrecognizable from each other. We could have animals with different musculature, thicker or thinner bellies, variations in horns, antlers, and tusks. We don’t necessarily need this on every animal, but there are many that would benefit greatly with little effort, like adding tusk variation to elephants, horn variation to rhinos, etc.
But we can do even more- With blend shapes/shape keys, one could simulate animal statuses like pregnancy, making the animal fat if it’s over-eating, making the animal thin if it’s not eating enough. We could simulate growth on juveniles as they grow up by changing their model to resemble the final adult model more closely. These features could easily make the animals feel more ALIVE, and like they actually grew up in your zoo thanks to your management.
Scenery path pieces for indoor construction & blueprints
Planet Coaster 2 comes with a great upgrade for path pieces, but we still need more- scenery path pieces. Basically, modular path pieces you can place down- 1x1 squares, and staircases. These would save with blueprints and can be connected to regular paths like you connect paths to shops and other buildings.
Better modular building set selection
Currently, the building menu gets pretty flooded by endless duplicates of the same modular pieces but with a different material. Instead of hundreds of duplicates- why not sort them into one single set- and let us select the materials after we select the pieces? This would heavily clean up the overloaded UI. This also goes for path pieces- they could be far more simplified by having a smaller material selection instead of hundreds of duplicates.
Modular Exhibits
Currently, besides the large exhibit, all the regular exhibit animals have the exact same exhibit size. Be it a tiny frog, a spider, or a large iguana or snake- same exhibit. To many this is ridiculous. A great solution to this would be to add modular exhibits- Exhibits that start in small units, but that you can expand in any direction- much like the lagoons and aviaries of Jurassic World Evolution 2, but with cubes, or perhaps other shapes as well. Each exhibit unit would come with rest points, where the exhibit animals spawn and play their animations. As for the decorations, perhaps include the option to decorate them ourselves- allowing us to place pieces with pre-set rest points, such as a branch where animals can rest. And also include just default decoration presets that you can select for each unit. This way, exhibiting animals would feel a lot closer to the customization that habitat animals have. One could even use this system to make small aquarium exhibits!
Eggs
Animals that lay eggs should make nests and… lay eggs. Yeah, pretty simple feature but I’m sure people will appreciate it greatly. Right now, it’s pretty immersion breaking that they don’t. Seeing animals build a home, a nest, in their habitat would be great to make your zoo feel real.
The player should be able to create designated nests, animals would only make their own if the player neglects to do so. And also, we could add incubator facilities for players who want to grow their animals that way.
Foliage Brush
A foliage brush much like the one in Jurassic world evolution is essential to zoo sim games, so we definitely need one. Ideally make it able to select which biomes you want to use for the brush, and set the density/intensity. Maybe we could even make custom brushes, perhaps even make brushes for rocks. A lot of possibilities that would save players lots of time.
Modded franchise animals
One thing I wish we had in pz1 was modded animals in franchise mode. Enabling franchise servers to accept modded animals would add so much for those who use them.
Zookeeper mode
One feature that we all miss from the old Zoo Tycoon games- zookeeper mode. The ability to actually participate in your zoo’s upkeep- feeding your animals, brushing them, interacting with your physical zoo- this made the game feel much closer, instead of being a bodiless floating soul. This could also be great for giving us more reasons to customize our player characters- that right now just randomly appear in your zoo sometimes and are otherwise barely ever actually seen. Could add a lot to the game by having a much better unlocks and rewards system for unlocking new skins, clothes, etc. for your player, instead of just a few hats. Imagine being able to pet your animals!
Another feature that can finally come back with Zookeeper mode: Golf Karts and vehicles! I’m sure many remember Frontier’s ZTUAC- it had awesome golf karts where you could even play with friends- Much fun can be had crashing around and goofing in a golf kart. It’s a great way to traverse your zoo while in first person mode.
Better time scale
Ever since the beta, people have complained about the game’s quick pacing. Animals die too fast- you don’t even get to feel attached to them. Forget about the game for an hour and hundreds of generations of your exhibit animals have been born and died and been replaced. Your zookeeper struggled to feed your animals before they starved while just running back and forth from the exhibit and the keeper hut. A typical game save can easily reach 200 years of age- that’s ridiculous, especially when a game like planet coaster had even slower time- a game where time doesn’t matter because it’s not focused on animals that die with time. Time should mean more. Age time scale options were added- but they just feel fake considering everything else continues at the same pace. I think the default speed of the game should definitely be slowed down- give your zookeepers time to do nothing. Specially if there’s going to be a zookeeper mode- so that the player doesn’t have to dart from place to place all the time instead of focusing on experiencing their zoo. Make it so reaching 5 years in your save file feels like a great milestone- not something you accomplished in one single hour of gameplay.
Animal market UI improvements
As Planet Zoo expands its roster, the animal trading UI makes less and less sense with hundreds of different animals. If you don’t have the exact animal’s name in mind, you’re going to have a hard time scrolling through the entire list to see what animals you have available. This is why I think the animal trading UI should be reworked. Instead of giving you an 18 pages long list of individuals to buy, start with organizing all the species into categories and tags, and show you the animal thumbnails before showing you the individuals to buy- selecting the animal would show you the available individuals to purchase. Some ideal categories could be:
-Biome (Desert, Tundra, Temperate, etc.)
-Region (America, Europe, Australia, etc.)
-Taxonomic Class (Mammals, Reptiles, Birds, etc.)
-Conservation status (Least concern, endangered, critically endangered, etc.)
So basically, when you click on the animal market, you’d be shown which of these categories you want to enable in your list. By not displaying the individuals’ information, you could use that space to display more species. When the user clicks on one of the species, then they get the individuals on a new section- from which they can buy whichever ones they choose.
Oh, and please, a better franchise storage system because it’s just impossible to manage once you have too many and it forces you to dump them all in one random zoo just to free up space.
Here’s a mockup of a possible new UI with category organization:
We would have categories/tags to enable/disable, a list of species that fit those tags, we could then select a species and it would show us basic but important information, and from there we could select an individual and have it's information pop up to the right like the image.
Obviously this could use a lot of improvements like more tags, and better design, but just to show how we could be able to see a lot more animals than we currently can, and also sort by animal tags.
One other thing is that for sandbox, players will definitely want to be able to place down animals without requiring to send them to a habitat from a trade center, and also customizing the genes, so please add options for that when in sandbox mode, allowing you to place animals directly in the habitat and as many as you want, wherever you want.
Multiplayer/franchise features
Franchise mode as a concept is very cool. Being able to interact with other players gives it an economic sense unlike the other modes- but in that regard it’s actually missing a lot. One big and obvious thing is trading- you can sell your animals to other players by trying to coordinate with them- but it’s pretty difficult and you can easily get sniped. That’s why Frontier should introduce actual trading- and perhaps even a friends list. Enabling you to trade directly with friends, and for example exchanging animals or credits or both for another player’s animals.
Co-op. A mode that could revolutionize fun in Planet Zoo. Using zookeeper mode- imagine if you could buy tickets and visit your friend’s zoos, your friends could give you a tour- or you could goof around and race in golf karts. You could also add the ability to have a zookeeper “third person mode” by adding a drone vehicle- which would allow you and other players to fly around and know where the others are. This could add a lot of new fun to Planet Zoo multiplayer that would truly make it a game to remember.
This could integrate really well with Franchise multiplayer features- you could allow people to allow anyone to visit their zoo- basically like the workshop- and doing so rewards the creator’s franchise zoo. Imagine a leaderboard of popular zoos, where content creators could showcase their creations- Imagine watching a time-lapse and being able to visit them and reward their franchise- Imagine youtubers bringing more people to the game by allowing everyone to visit their zoo. It would bring a lot of new players and fun to Planet Zoo. Visiting popular zoos would be a great place to find zoo ideas and seeing what people can create with advanced building tools.
Zoo Progression
Right now, in the regular modes, there’s barely any progression to be made in a zoo. The only thing limiting you is money. If you place down one animal and wait long enough to get money from it, you can immediately place down a lion or an elephant. You can place down a critically endangered animal even if you’ve never even cared for anything, and have animals with 0 welfare. For that reason, I think we need a new mode of progression- much like the original ZT games, starting with simpler animals and earning permits for the rarer, more popular animals as you progress through achievements in the save file and earn more stars for your zoo. That way earning new stars and improving the quality of your zoo feels like it’s worth it- not that you just… got a shiny star and no actual reward for it. Make Planet Zoo feel more like a GAME.
Sandbox of course would still skip this progression.
Better challenges
Missions are often ignored and not without reason, they can become boresome, as they are often just things that you were already doing but with X animal. We need real challenges and missions that get you to do new stuff- not just rewarding you for doing well in what you were already doing. ZT2 had many fun missions, like having you enter a photo contest, trying to impress a celebrity in the park, having to take care of an animal that was sent in by another zoo, getting scammed by an animal dealer and suddenly having to take care of a random animal… many fun ways to spice up the gameplay that’s already there, instead of just saying “breed 7 pandas”.
Animal Model Variation
Animals already have some great variation features. The colourmorphs, which add different skin textures such as albinos. The marking system, which randomizes the markings on different sections. The colour variation, which slightly changes the hue, saturation, and brightness of the animal. These are great for changing the texture of the animal, but they’re missing one big thing. Model variation.
Model variation could truly make every animal unrecognizable from each other. We could have animals with different musculature, thicker or thinner bellies, variations in horns, antlers, and tusks. We don’t necessarily need this on every animal, but there are many that would benefit greatly with little effort, like adding tusk variation to elephants, horn variation to rhinos, etc.
But we can do even more- With blend shapes/shape keys, one could simulate animal statuses like pregnancy, making the animal fat if it’s over-eating, making the animal thin if it’s not eating enough. We could simulate growth on juveniles as they grow up by changing their model to resemble the final adult model more closely. These features could easily make the animals feel more ALIVE, and like they actually grew up in your zoo thanks to your management.
Scenery path pieces for indoor construction & blueprints
Planet Coaster 2 comes with a great upgrade for path pieces, but we still need more- scenery path pieces. Basically, modular path pieces you can place down- 1x1 squares, and staircases. These would save with blueprints and can be connected to regular paths like you connect paths to shops and other buildings.
Better modular building set selection
Currently, the building menu gets pretty flooded by endless duplicates of the same modular pieces but with a different material. Instead of hundreds of duplicates- why not sort them into one single set- and let us select the materials after we select the pieces? This would heavily clean up the overloaded UI. This also goes for path pieces- they could be far more simplified by having a smaller material selection instead of hundreds of duplicates.
Modular Exhibits
Currently, besides the large exhibit, all the regular exhibit animals have the exact same exhibit size. Be it a tiny frog, a spider, or a large iguana or snake- same exhibit. To many this is ridiculous. A great solution to this would be to add modular exhibits- Exhibits that start in small units, but that you can expand in any direction- much like the lagoons and aviaries of Jurassic World Evolution 2, but with cubes, or perhaps other shapes as well. Each exhibit unit would come with rest points, where the exhibit animals spawn and play their animations. As for the decorations, perhaps include the option to decorate them ourselves- allowing us to place pieces with pre-set rest points, such as a branch where animals can rest. And also include just default decoration presets that you can select for each unit. This way, exhibiting animals would feel a lot closer to the customization that habitat animals have. One could even use this system to make small aquarium exhibits!
Eggs
Animals that lay eggs should make nests and… lay eggs. Yeah, pretty simple feature but I’m sure people will appreciate it greatly. Right now, it’s pretty immersion breaking that they don’t. Seeing animals build a home, a nest, in their habitat would be great to make your zoo feel real.
The player should be able to create designated nests, animals would only make their own if the player neglects to do so. And also, we could add incubator facilities for players who want to grow their animals that way.
Foliage Brush
A foliage brush much like the one in Jurassic world evolution is essential to zoo sim games, so we definitely need one. Ideally make it able to select which biomes you want to use for the brush, and set the density/intensity. Maybe we could even make custom brushes, perhaps even make brushes for rocks. A lot of possibilities that would save players lots of time.
Modded franchise animals
One thing I wish we had in pz1 was modded animals in franchise mode. Enabling franchise servers to accept modded animals would add so much for those who use them.
