Almost no Zoo is bad
It would be absolutely awesome if they would change the releasing of Animals a bit
3rd DLC Pack Discussion - What region do you think it will cover? When do you see it releasing?
- Thread starter evrard
- Start date
I rewrote my post to say, "Most zoos aren't bad.".
I agree that there could be better conservation messaging in the game. I think it would be really cool (and maybe easy?) to introduce the following things to the game:
- only gold standard animals can be released to the wild, with an option to turn this off for sandbox/challenge (I don't play Franchise, so maybe gold is too hard, possibly release silver and up?)
- an education board that teaches guests about captive breeding programs and release to the wild
- programs you can pay for (the same way that marketing works now) where money goes into habitat conservation, education, supporting anti-poaching teams, etc (you choose which program/s to support). You would get a higher conservation star rating and conservation points in return. Would be really great if you occasionally got animals given to you to boost gold breeding.
- send keepers/vets on conservation missions - they disappear from the zoo for a little while but come back with new training, also contributes to conservation star rating
- an education staff member - they do keeper talks, but also some campaign talks that encourage guests to donate to conservation efforts by the zoo.
This could definitely be patched in before an endangered species focused pack, but honestly I would be stoked to have this at any point.
Its a game.. Zoo keepers dont magically remove poo as they do in Planet Zoo.
The idea of conversation is just a concept to educate/illustrate. Ofcourse in real life this is much more complicated.
WingardiumLevicoaster
Volunteer Moderator
Please stay on topic 
Thats the most intelligent thing I've read on this forum. I also thought frontier would focus more on the conservation aspects of saving species, they could have done more needless to say
My reference to reintroduction programs was exclusively in regards to reintroduction of large mammalian species (e.g. habitat animals) which is the model being promoted by Frontier. There have been many successful reintroductions of birds, herps, fish, and insects. Any species that has precocial young is a better candidate for reintroduction than mammals, especially carnivores. Conservationists have developed some interesting techniques for raising chicks. The whooping crane population was so decimated that scientists had to teach the chicks to follow a light plane to train them to their historic migration route. This groundbreaking research was performed at Patuxent Wildlife Research Center (i.e. not a zoo). Oddly enough zoos filled with hordes of people and their screaming progeny are not the best place to encourage critically endangered, often shy, species to breed, and certainly not to acclimate the resulting offspring to the wild. Wild animals that are habituated to people die or are killed.
I don't have a fundamental problem with reintroduction programs. They have a time and a place. I have a problem with Frontier spreading the message that's its okay to hunt species into extinction, because we can just restock the wild from captivity. This is a dangerous concept to plant in the minds of impressionable children and the general populace. The release to the wild feature is used by players as a convenient way to dump unwanted stock or make a quick buck (conservation credits). Zoos that participate in reintroduction programs make huge donations to the native countries to conserve habitat, support local communities to decrease poaching and increase education, etc. Zoos also make huge investments in raising, training, and then transporting (often halfway across the world) animals for release. There should be a large cash cost for every single animal that is released to the wild. I think of conservation credits as a substitute for zoo renown so I think awarding conservation credits for a successful release continues to make sense. The player can then decide if the trade off between cash expenditure and conservation credit gain is the right decision for their franchise.
I don't have a fundamental problem with reintroduction programs. They have a time and a place. I have a problem with Frontier spreading the message that's its okay to hunt species into extinction, because we can just restock the wild from captivity. This is a dangerous concept to plant in the minds of impressionable children and the general populace. The release to the wild feature is used by players as a convenient way to dump unwanted stock or make a quick buck (conservation credits). Zoos that participate in reintroduction programs make huge donations to the native countries to conserve habitat, support local communities to decrease poaching and increase education, etc. Zoos also make huge investments in raising, training, and then transporting (often halfway across the world) animals for release. There should be a large cash cost for every single animal that is released to the wild. I think of conservation credits as a substitute for zoo renown so I think awarding conservation credits for a successful release continues to make sense. The player can then decide if the trade off between cash expenditure and conservation credit gain is the right decision for their franchise.
Przewalski Horse and Arabian Oryx were successful. It's hard to track numbers out of China, but an estimated 11 Giant Pandas ever have been released to the wild. Clearly it was the international attention, money, and conservation projects, not reintroduction that improved the plight of the panda. I would hardly classify the red wolf program as successful. I was previously unaware of the Amur leopard program; I look forward to learning more.
Great. Glad we are delaying the inevitable here. The Spix macaw population was founded on seven individuals. In another couple of generations it will be extinct.
To get back on topic: I was absolutely sure we would get some news on a DLC last tuesday. But: silence once again. Maybe things got delayed, because the unknowen app is in steam for quite a while now, I believe. Or they don't want to pull attention awqay from the console version of Planet Coaster, which game play trailer should drop today.
I'm still calm, though. Because of my Planet Zoo low and because the current DLC concept won't knock me out of my socks anyway. We probably get 4 australian animals, randolmly chosen (I wish it was at least by biome) and that's it. I'm more looking forward to the free update coming along, as it mostly introduces silghtly new features often.
I'm still calm, though. Because of my Planet Zoo low and because the current DLC concept won't knock me out of my socks anyway. We probably get 4 australian animals, randolmly chosen (I wish it was at least by biome) and that's it. I'm more looking forward to the free update coming along, as it mostly introduces silghtly new features often.
Last edited:
Seems like alot of ungulates. I mean, they would be wonderful to have but currently, I think we need more animals that are completely different to what we already have. Penguins, sea lions, marsupials (kangaaroo, koala, tas. devil...), fennec foxes, some kind of badger, wolwerine, capybara, beaver, otter, porcupine, sloths, meerkats, gibbons... Yes most of these would need new rig or new game mechanics, but I think these animals are more important to have than another ungulates.
For now of course, there are many ungulates I would like to see, but I would give the priority to unique animal types first.
For now of course, there are many ungulates I would like to see, but I would give the priority to unique animal types first.
Last edited:
My prediction is Oceania releasing first week in August, and will have Kangaroos.
I actually would be really happy with the kangaroo. I am more afraid that the kangaroo is a difficult animal to design so we first get other animal packs/dlc before we get a kangaroo.
All I wonder is why would the animation of Kangaroos or Koala's be more challenging than something like a Lemur?
Those people that say that have little faith in the capabilities of Frontier's employee's, which makes no sense to me.
I don't know if the koala animations are especially difficult or easy, but I doubt that Frontier will make a new rig for the koala anyways. They would probably adjust the rig for the red panda if they introduced a koala to planet zoo.
So in essence they would still be developing a new rig, only using another rig as a base.
What's the difference?
Adjusting a red panda rig ( or any of the existing animal rigs for that matter) to fit a koala would be incredibly difficult for a quite mediocre result; it is much easier and much more time efficient to just make a new rig from scratch. Frontier has made new rigs for DLCs in the past (Anteater being a perfect example), so honestly that's not something we should worry about too much here.
A general rule of thumb, as a developer it's often much easier to do a rig from scratch than to try to adjust a rig of an existing animal that only very remotely resembles it.
This might come as a surprise to you, but developing a new rig takes much more effort than using an existing rig and just cut the tail of. Frontier only has to create a new skin and can use the existing walking and climbing animations of the red Panda
The kangaroo on the other hand needs a completely new rig with new animations. I don't doubt that Frontiers developers pull it off, if they decide to implement a kangaroo. The animations in planet zoo are very good. (The inaccuracies due to shared rigs are acceptable for the most players). But the kangaroo will probably make more effort than the existing 8 dlc animals
Adjusting a red panda rig ( or any of the existing animal rigs for that matter) to fit a koala would be incredibly difficult for a quite mediocre result; it is much easier and much more time efficient to just make a new rig from scratch. Frontier has made new rigs for DLCs in the past (Anteater being a perfect example), so honestly that's not something we should worry about too much here.
A general rule of thumb, as a developer it's often much easier to do a rig from scratch than to try to adjust a rig of an existing animal that only very remotely resembles it.
Are those two animals really that different? I only watched some YouTube videos, and I thought them to be quite similar. They are even inaccurately called koala bear. I would be really surprised, if the koala gets a lot of unique animations, if released together with a kangaroo.
Frontier already showed, that they are willing to take rigs from existing animals for animals, that are quite similar, but have (for biologists) notable differences in movement.
Last edited:
Even if that is true, I cannot imagine an Asutralian DLC without kangaroos. The chance that they would release such DLC without this iconic animal is almost minimal in my opinion.
Koala...I am not sure. I consider them a must in game animal, however they are even more complicated because of their arboreal lifestyle so there is a chance they wont make it into the pack...at least for now. We will see.
Koala...I am not sure. I consider them a must in game animal, however they are even more complicated because of their arboreal lifestyle so there is a chance they wont make it into the pack...at least for now. We will see.