Modding support

[xTo]

Hey there,
I wasn't too sure wether to post this in the wishlist section or here so I'll let the mods decide on that.

Has there been any news regarding modding support? and what do you guys think of it.
A big part of Zoo Tycoon 2 back in the day was the active community around it creating custom animals, facilities, building, foliage, etc. to the point where one could make complete expansion-sized additions to the game.
Personally I loved this aspect of the game. I would regularly check the ZT2 forums for new animals and seeing the creativity amongst the modders kept the game 'alive' for a relatively long time.

Would you guys like for FD to provide, support or just allow this kind of game modding or do you think it would be a bad thing?
And how would that play into, say, franchise mode?

 

[LN]

Maybe a Thememaker Toolkit, but nothing else to expect from the side of Frontier.

Just as with Planco. If you want to mod, you've got to figure it out yourself.

Franchise mode is the reason you won't get mods.

 

[NikolaP]

If there would be some kind of thememaker toolkit there won't be nothing before year or two after release. Simply, they need DLC's for this game too.

 

[LN]

If there would be some kind of thememaker toolkit there won't be nothing before year or two after release. Simply, they need DLC's for this game too.

We've still got DLC's for Planco after the release of the TMTK. So that should not matter.

And the main focus of DLC's is the animals, and those can not be made with the TMTK, just like you can't build rides with the TMTK for Planco.

 

[NikolaP]

I'm not following Planet Coaster and modding scene for it. How is it with that toolmaker toolkit? Is it any good like it was for let's say ZT2? I mean what you can build with it? Are new complete themes possible like we have Savannah in Planet Zoo or something like that? I think it will be ultimatelly hard to make something to keep up graphically with Planet Zoo standards honestly.

 

[Okapia]

I hope we do get mod support. Modding will give the game longevity.
Zoo tycoon 2 is still relevant because of mods. Operation genesis is still relevant because of mods. The AI mods for Operation Genesis were fantastic. Zoo Tycoon 2's fan made expansions were fun and kept the graphics (mostly the textures) somewhat up-to-date.

That being said, Frontier is known for their dlcs (e.g. over 100 (!) dollars for all the dlcs for planet coaster), and modding [could prevent] them from selling them. Combine that with an online mode, and there will likely be no mod support. Maybe we will get something similar to planet coaster's, after [most of] the dlcs are out?

I'm not sure if animal mods would ever be possible, although that would be the dream.

 

[xTo]

Modding doesn't necessarily influence DLC's in a negative way, look at Skyrim. The modding community around skyrim is one of the biggest in the world but regardless of that Bethesda published their own, well-liked, DLC's.

 

[Okapia]

Modding doesn't necessarily influence DLC's in a negative way, look at Skyrim. The modding community around skyrim is one of the biggest in the world but regardless of that Bethesda published their own, well-liked, DLC's.

This is actually true, for the most part. There was a home-making mod before the Hearthfire dlc that added it to the game. People still bought Hearthfire. Zoo Tycoon 2 had expansions, and many mods now require all of them to work.

 

[LoneBlind]

I wouldn't get my hopes up for something like this. I would pretty much die for it but I have a feeling it would be a way too difficult undertaking for them to implement. The animals seem to be extremely complex both assets and behavioral AI. Maybe way further down the road they could add it in but I doubt it.

 

[xTo]

They don't really have to provide a native tool for it in my opinion. Just don't actively go against it would be fine as well. Let the community figure it out

 

[Okapia]

I wouldn't get my hopes up for something like this. I would pretty much die for it but I have a feeling it would be a way too difficult undertaking for them to implement. The animals seem to be extremely complex both assets and behavioral AI. Maybe way further down the road they could add it in but I doubt it.

I agree that is unlikely. However, if enough people want it and genuinely feel it would add to the game, maybe some mod support could be added? If not...

They don't really have to provide a native tool for it in my opinion. Just don't actively go against it would be fine as well. Let the community figure it out

... this is a good middle ground.

 

[LN]

I'm not following Planet Coaster and modding scene for it. How is it with that toolmaker toolkit? Is it any good like it was for let's say ZT2? I mean what you can build with it? Are new complete themes possible like we have Savannah in Planet Zoo or something like that? I think it will be ultimatelly hard to make something to keep up graphically with Planet Zoo standards honestly.

Thememaker's Toolkit

The Thememaker's Toolkit allows you to convert your 3D model creations into Planet Coaster scenery items.

thememakers-toolkit.planetcoaster.com

You can make scenery with it.

Actually you make it in Blender or a different supported program, and then upload it.
After that you can use it in Planet Coaster.

There is plenty of stuff made by users.

There is an entire forum section for it.

Thememaker's Toolkit

Devoted to your creations!

forums.frontier.co.uk

The problem you have with modding, is you need to understand the coding in the Engine, and only Frontier knows it, because it is their own designed engine, not a open-source one like Unity.

So to be short, no modding support. They also do not actively go against it, but without engine knowledge modding is very hard.

I hope we do get mod support. Modding will give the game longevity.
Zoo tycoon 2 is still relevant because of mods. Operation genesis is still relevant because of mods. The AI mods for Operation Genesis were fantastic. Zoo Tycoon 2's fan made expansions were fun and kept the graphics (mostly the textures) somewhat up-to-date.

That being said, Frontier is known for their dlcs (e.g. over 100 (!) dollars for all the dlcs for planet coaster), and modding [could prevent] them from selling them. Combine that with an online mode, and there will likely be no mod support. Maybe we will get something similar to planet coaster's, after [most of] the dlcs are out?

I'm not sure if animal mods would ever be possible, although that would be the dream.

I think the reason ZT2 was still relevant, is the lack of a good alternative, not because it has mods.

 

[LoneBlind]

They don't seem like the type of developers to actively work against modability but even so I wouldn't be surprised if the engine just wasn't set up for it at all. I can imagine retextures would be available but not sure about much else.

 

[MaximusSC]

Umm, shouldn't we see the full version of the game first before we consider whether it needs modded? At this point no one knows what might need improved upon and everyone is fairly confident in their belief that there will be DLC's that will add animals and construction materials and even themes.

That's not to mention that mods in many games often break when the game is updated.

 

[LN]

Umm, shouldn't we see the full version of the game first before we consider whether it needs modded? At this point no one knows what might need improved upon and everyone is fairly confident in their belief that there will be DLC's that will add animals and construction materials and even themes.

That's not to mention that mods in many games often break when the game is updated.

No worries, people are generally only asking for tools for modding, but as long as those are not there, not a lot of effort is put into modding the game anyways.

 

[AndyZoos]

Comparing PlanCo to Planet Zoo in terms of modding is a bit tricky. I don't see any reason why (if there was demand for it) we wouldn't get some sort of TMTK for Planet Zoo somewhere down the line. But the two games are inherently different in their goals and what people would want to mod... Even as far as the DLC is concerned it's a bit different. And in my opinion -- there is a lot more that Fronteir can do with Planet Zoo than PlanCo in terms of additional content if they really wanted to. Just based on the variety of animals in the world, environments, etc.

We may get a TMTK at some point but the focus would be on scenery, building tools, etc Maybe giving people the ability to re-skin certain things, or update certain aspects of animals needs. And what is/was best about the ZT2 modding community was how much you can expand the species of animals you have access to it via user-created content. I have plenty of faith that Fronteir will provide

But creating new animals or interactive items for said-animals? I'm really not sure how that would work. I would love to think they could find a way to make it feasible, but I don't know enough about 3D modeling, programming, the tools available, etc. to really say. It would probably be fairly limited (e.g., no climbing animals) if that ever became a possibility. But again. I'm kind of talking with minimal (read: no) knowledge here.

 

[LoneBlind]

Umm, shouldn't we see the full version of the game first before we consider whether it needs modded? At this point no one knows what might need improved upon and everyone is fairly confident in their belief that there will be DLC's that will add animals and construction materials and even themes.

That's not to mention that mods in many games often break when the game is updated.

Modding is not about "improving upon" the base game at all. The only games where that is the case are ones with known bugs that the developers have left unfixed for years. There is no arguing that if it were possible, the modding community would create far more animals that Frontier themselves would ever be able to even with DLC. I think that's mainly what people have in mind when asking about mod compatibility. Especially in the case of people who want animals that may be extremely obscure and not worth Frontier's time adding through DLC.

 

[MaximusSC]

Modding is not about "improving upon" the base game at all. The only games where that is the case are ones with known bugs that the developers have left unfixed for years. There is no arguing that if it were possible, the modding community would create far more animals that Frontier themselves would ever be able to even with DLC. I think that's mainly what people have in mind when asking about mod compatibility. Especially in the case of people who want animals that may be extremely obscure and not worth Frontier's time adding through DLC.

I respectfully disagree. Modding, in general, is all about the modder believing they are adding something to the game that will 'improve' the game in some way. Sometimes the mods change nothing more than aesthetics while other times the mods are intended to give options to the game play, among other things. Each mod created can easily be considered to being an 'improvement' by either the modder themself or the users of said mod. There doesn't have to 'bugs', known or otherwise, for one to consider a mod an 'improvement' of the game.

I, personally, don't consider TMTK items as things that are 'modded' as they are not 'necessary' in any way shape or form. They are solely about aesthetics and beautification and serve no other function.

 

[Silhouette]

I'm probably going to get some heat for this but personally I hope they don't add modding support for animals in the game.

The full release isn't even out yet, I don't understand why people are so concerned about being able to mod in animals when they don't even know what's all going to be in the game, let alone DLCs. First animals you would see getting put up are polar bears and penguins... And then what? Frontier loses out on sales for future DLC because yes some people will of course buy it, but there's also a huge expanse of people that will figure "eh I can get it for free, why pay money".

Not to mention I highly doubt any animal released through a mod would be anywhere near Frontier's standard, so why bother? You'd have to know how their fur shaders work, how their inverse kinematics work, how the nav mesh system works, how the personality and animations are going to work, etc etc. ZT2 was no where near the same level PZ is at, so it's not really fair to compare the two.

If they do ever release mod support then I would hope it wouldn't be for years out, when they've moved on from the game. Then yes I can understand a "longevity" aspect of that. But for now when the game isn't even out yet, yes, I do find it a bit selfish for people to demand modding abilities because it does feel like they're disregarding all the work Frontier has done (to clarify, I have no problem with people wanting/asking for it, I'm talking about the people I've seen that have been pretty nasty about claiming Frontier is in the wrong for not allowing modding support for animals).

As for decorations and stuff that would be a nice addition, but animals in particular shouldn't be allowed to be modded in.

 

[markun]

Particularly in terms of animals I think Frontier would have understandable concerns about quality control and protecting their reputation - and product.

Aesthetically Planet Zoo looks incredibly beautiful and the animals are all of a very high standard and consistent style and that’s contributing to the enormous excitement building for the launch of the game.

There are some incredibly talented people creating mods for other games but let’s be honest, with no disrespect, there are some who might not have the same standards or ability to keep to the standards set by Frontier in developing Planet Zoo.

ZT2 was a bit different. A lot of the recent modding with animals, for example, has been about fixing the poor appearance of the original animals - often with stunning results - rather than just adding missing species although that was important too. There’s also been incredible game-changing building and foliage sets which really kept the game playable, significantly extending its longevity.

I’m not sure there will be the same pressing need with Planet Zoo even if we don’t get all the species we want straight away.