Animal model discussion thread

tigris115

tigris115
I feel like the cats are a bit inconsistent with the rest of the other animals which are insanely hyperrealistic, including other carnivorans such as the wolves and bears. To be more specific; the snow leopard looks like it has pecs, the Bengal tiger is a bit fluffy whereas the real-life cat is a bit slimmer, and the lion looks a bit too picturesque and like Mufasa.

Now I wanna clarify that this is in no way a diss to Frontier's modelers. These cats are still a solid 8/10 in my book. I just want them to have artistic consistency with the other animals in the roster.
 
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Silhouette

S
I don't agree that the animals are necessarily "hyperrealistic". In my opinion they all have a rather chonky look to them, which I assume was a design decision and it's cute imo. Perhaps it just stands out to you more in felines than other animals. Either way all the animals have a consistent style to me, I don't see the necessity in changing them.
 

NikolaP

N
I love animals in Planet Zoo. Coudn't care less if they are or aren't 1:1 copies from real animals. They look amazing and no doubt the best animals in any game, especially when we take variety and quantity. 3 times better then in Zoo Tycoon X Box.
 
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tigris115

tigris115
I'm going to admit right now that I'm super anal about consistency in a game roster. And this is something that can easily be put on the back burner for things like making fence/path placement easier and making the foliage cover more forgiving.
 

Swjosdotschka

Swjosdotschka
While I love the animals and the look of them, It's true that they are all a bit chuncky. With cats I have more problems with their claws out all the time. But my friends said she heard in a live stream that this still should be fixed.
 

Paul_Crowther

Senior Community Manager
Frontier
Swjosdotschka said:
While I love the animals and the look of them, It's true that they are all a bit chuncky. With cats I have more problems with their claws out all the time. But my friends said she heard in a live stream that this still should be fixed.
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We're aiming to have retractable claws for the animals that need them. This wasn't available during the Beta or early development screenshots.
 

Cocolori

Cocolori
Paul_Crowther said:
We're aiming to have retractable claws for the animals that need them. This wasn't available during the Beta or early development screenshots.
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Oh you guys are really pulling out all the stops huh! This will make the realism lovers and zoology pedants really happy! (not an insult I am often one of them and it's awsome the community want the animals to look as good as possible)
 

NikolaP

N
If any of people start staring at cat's claws for more then two or three times during the whole Planet Zoo gaming call me a donkey. I will never ever understaind requests like this. Probably I am selfish here but I really think that retractable claws or not won't improve/ruin the whole Planet Zoo experience.

The team should focus on balancing/tweaking things, optmization, AI improvements, problems with speed in Franchise mode, improving animal behaviors... things who will matters for game experience in the longest run. I know that Frontier team are already aware of that, just saying for user base.

Graphichs for this game is already amazing, pure 10, also animal models for one video game are absolutelly brilliant, no one will say otherwise and to have them (animals) in such crazy number and variety is stunning. Game for sure won't feel improvements if lion manes are perfect like from real lions, or if boa's head is more accurate, or if cats have retractable claws.. things like that will be noticable two or three times (if that) in the whole Planet Zoo gaming experience.

I don't want to call out anyone's whish or request here. It is clear to me that everyone who making a whish or request for something have their reasons for that, even if those reasons couldn't be understandable for me or some other person, but Frontier team needs to have some priorities and I really think that cat's claws shouldn't be high on their list. Especially if that is time consuming and a bit harder to implement to work properly.
 

[VR] Deggial

[VR] Deggial
NikolaP said:
If any of people start staring at cat's claws for more then two or three times during the whole Planet Zoo gaming call me a donkey. I will never ever understaind requests like this. ...
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I believe, this is the same psychological mechanic at work as flying from system to system in Elite Dangerous with supercruise rather than jumping. No sane person would do that (at least more than once in order to prove it's possible), but the forum was filled with related threads. Once such a detail was brought up in a discussion, it's like the constant dripping of a water-tab. It's a subtle noise, but you can't stop listening (or rather staring at this "issue").

Edit: and honestly, the claws are more of an issue than this jump thingy and I really love that the PZ team is so dedicated to care about such little details.
 
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Swjosdotschka

Swjosdotschka
Insane or not: I'm a realistic player. And since Planet Zoo also focus a lot on education, I think that accurate animal models are not a small thing. It's like realistic pooping animations. Not a game breaker if they are not there, but it clearly helps to make the animals feel realistic for those who indeed notice and like to watch their animals for a longer time. Just to give some insight from a person that was one of those who had / has her problems with the claws. ;)
 

AndyZoos

A
NikolaP said:
The team should focus on balancing/tweaking things, optmization, AI improvements, problems with speed in Franchise mode, improving animal behaviors... things who will matters for game experience in the longest run. I know that Frontier team are already aware of that, just saying for user base.

Graphichs for this game is already amazing, pure 10, also animal models for one video game are absolutelly brilliant, no one will say otherwise and to have them (animals) in such crazy number and variety is stunning. Game for sure won't feel improvements if lion manes are perfect like from real lions, or if boa's head is more accurate, or if cats have retractable claws.. things like that will be noticable two or three times (if that) in the whole Planet Zoo gaming experience.

I don't want to call out anyone's whish or request here. It is clear to me that everyone who making a whish or request for something have their reasons for that, even if those reasons couldn't be understandable for me or some other person, but Frontier team needs to have some priorities and I really think that cat's claws shouldn't be high on their list. Especially if that is time consuming and a bit harder to implement to work properly.
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I'm sure they have multiple people working on different aspects of the game. Including balancing/tweaking some things that were off-balance during the beta, AI, etc.

Swjosdotschka said:
Insane or not: I'm a realistic player. And since Planet Zoo also focus a lot on education, I think that accurate animal models are not a small thing. It's like realistic pooping animations. Not a game breaker if they are not there, but it clearly helps to make the animals feel realistic for those who indeed notice and like to watch their animals for a longer time. Just to give some insight from a person that was one of those who had / has her problems with the claws. ;)
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I'm definitely with you here! I don't really "care" about this sort of detail (i.e., it wouldn't bother me if it weren't there) but... It's definitely cool to have them in the game if they can make that happen!
 

Cile

Cile
I mean sure the claws were a slight thing to note but, it would not ruin the game for me, I was just overjoyed that the cats actually had whiskers, because there are so many animals in so many games, specifically cats in games, where they don't add whiskers, and that's such a critical and essential part of the animal like, it always bothers me in games if an animal who should have whiskers, has none. However it never made me not play a game due to not having it. I personally find tho the pooping is interesting choice it would not bother me if they had all the same poop or something, i find it weird trend with games recently, lots of games find adding poop is okay but they don't add peeing XD which confuses me, I mean lowkey feel eggs are more important then poop but its just my opinion.

I love the animal models in the game, i think they are wonderfully designed and I have never seen any animal in a game that made me so in love with how they look, i feel having stuff look too realistic in a game becomes uncanny, and that's never a good thing unless your trying to be scary.
 

Bobble2017

Bobble2017
I think they have done a really fantastic job so far on all the animals . I am not an expert on the sizes of different animals but to me they all look so realistic

Only thing i felt was a let down on the beta was the peafowl never once showed off their tail fans in my zoos
 

Remira

Remira
Swjosdotschka said:
Insane or not: I'm a realistic player. And since Planet Zoo also focus a lot on education, I think that accurate animal models are not a small thing. It's like realistic pooping animations. Not a game breaker if they are not there, but it clearly helps to make the animals feel realistic for those who indeed notice and like to watch their animals for a longer time. Just to give some insight from a person that was one of those who had / has her problems with the claws. ;)
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Yeah like I think the cheetah is the only big cat with non-retractable claws. When you have other big cat species in the game, it ends up being a fairly significant detail since this game is focusing on education and accuracy as far as a zoo game goes.
 
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