What are your Planet Zoo Hot Takes?

[shirandhak]

They don't have to be very detailed for me. Just to look (and move/behave) NOT like toons. If I ever see this silly keeper-jump in PZ2 I will boycott it forever!

And no, they are not "simple", but they overact the whole time. I don't need rolling eyes. It is looking so weird and not at all like humans.

 

[DarthQuell]

That's part of the charm

 

[shirandhak]

That's my hottake - sorry, if you don't agree, but that doesn't change anything about it.

 

[Pentoleaf]

I have no issue with the dingo. It's a common Australian zoo animals and an important part of the ecosystem. Whatever it's original origins, it is no longer "just a feral dog" and I think it gives an interesting glimpse into how domestic animals may rewild and speciate in the future.

The main issue is that the Australia pack should've been a animal pack, but given when it came out and what was going on in the world we'll never know if that was the original plan or not. As we get more Australian animals added, I think that the dingo will more and more be able to shine on its own merits.

As for what those other Australian animals should be... I personally would FAR prefer the emu and a wallaby over the Tasmanian Devil, but maybe we'll be lucky and get all three. If we're really, really, really lucky maybe we'll get quolls, and black swans, and crowned pigeons, and bin chickens, and walk through aviaries of budgies as well. ... okay, probably not, unless we get support until 2050, but I can dream right?

And maybe, just maybe, we'll get a bit of representation for wider Oceanka. Tree kangaroos, kiwis, tuataras, and giant geckos anyone? I'd be fine with extra penguins. I'd also be fine with leopard seals and kakapoos because, realism asside, a digital kakapoo is the closest most will ever get to one and it raises species awareness.

 

[becks474]

A new hot take for me:
Disappointment with the looped animations of the bats is a perfect example for making yourself too high hopes and having to high expectations in front of a DLC. As it was labeled as exhibit species I expected this looped motions from the DLC announcement on.

Edit: A second hot take:
Too high expectations that flying birds will work differently and have free flying could lead to a lot of frustration if we should get them at the end (I am not saying that it is not possible that we get free flying birds but at the moment I would expect them with looped animations working similar to the bats)

 

[KönigDerKaffeebohnen]

A new hot take for me:
Disappointment with the looped animations of the bats is a perfect example for making yourself too high hopes and having to high expectations in front of a DLC. As it was labeled as exhibit species I expected this looped motions from the DLC announcement on.

Theres a difference between unrealistic expectation and the disappointmemt with something eventhough we know what we got.
Im disappointed, because i never wanted them as exhibits, which is totally valid.

Im also extra disappointed by the loops, because i think that the navigation looks bad, not because they are loops.
It looks jerky and sluggish like they change directions with tank control.


At no point was i optimistic that they would be free flying since they were revealed, but im still disappointed as we know that frontier can and has done better before, see jurassic world Evolution

 

[Captain Callum]

A new hot take for me:
Disappointment with the looped animations of the bats is a perfect example for making yourself too high hopes and having to high expectations in front of a DLC. As it was labeled as exhibit species I expected this looped motions from the DLC announcement on.

Edit: A second hot take:
Too high expectations that flying birds will work differently and have free flying could lead to a lot of frustration if we should get them at the end (I am not saying that it is not possible that we get free flying birds but at the moment I would expect them with looped animations working similar to the bats)

Actually I over reacted yesterday seeing some of the YouTube videos. I got 8 bats in a exhibit and looks no way near as bad as some of the videos showing really repetitive loops. Maybe more bats encourages dynamic loops - hoping the same with birds

 

[becks474]

Theres a difference between unrealistic expectation and the disappointmemt with something eventhough we know what we got.
Im disappointed, because i never wanted them as exhibits, which is totally valid.

Im also extra disappointed by the loops, because i think that the navigation looks bad, not because they are loops.
It looks jerky and sluggish like they change directions with tank control.


At no point was i optimistic that they would be free flying since they were revealed, but im still disappointed as we know that frontier can and has done better before, see jurassic world Evolution

It is okay to be disappointed in general that they got looped animations and of course if you are the opinion the navigation is bad.
But I must say that is was almost clear that this loops will happen after DLC announcement as they have been labelled as exhibit animals. Being then surprised about a very likely thing after watching first CC videos shows me nevertheless that expectations were still set up too high.
But I do really not want to judge this. It was just my observation and we should take this into account that the very same could happen when we should get flying birds soon.

 

[NZFanatic]

It is okay to be disappointed in general that they got looped animations and of course if you are the opinion the navigation is bad.
But I must say that is was almost clear that this loops will happen after DLC announcement as they have been labelled as exhibit animals. Being then surprised about a very likely thing after watching first CC videos shows me nevertheless that expectations were still set up too high.
But I do really not want to judge this. It was just my observation and we should take this into account that the very same could happen when we should get flying birds soon.

This community always does this though - reads too much into a simple feature and then gets disappointed when it isn't what they imagined. Honestly I'm actually pleasantly surprised by the amount of customisation on the new exhibit; I always knew it would be looped animations (there was zero reason to think it wouldn't be; like you said, Frontier never pretended it wasn't an exhibit), but I fully expected the exhibit itself to function the same way as the others do; place down, populate, and the interior is spawned automatically. The fact that we can change the shell and fill the interior with whatever we want is awesome.

 

[FlameWizard492]

I'm okay with the bats.

Now, let me get this out of the way: I DON'T want to talk down to anyone, so don't interpret it in that way.

I'm grateful that we at least got bats themselves, a nice-looking customizable exhibit system, and so on. I don't mind the repetitive animations. I just feel bad for the developers because they worked so hard to bring us these and introduce the possibility for more animals to be introduced.

Also, here's a theory or two of mine: are the aviary mechanics of JWE2 copyrighted in such a way that they can't be used in other games? OR... Are the developers of PZ not as in-touch with the JWE2? OR... Is the game not capable of supporting the JWE2 aviary mechanics? Let me know what you think.

 

[yoav_r]

I'm okay with the bats.

Now, let me get this out of the way: I DON'T want to talk down to anyone, so don't interpret it in that way.

I'm grateful that we at least got bats themselves, a nice-looking customizable exhibit system, and so on. I don't mind the repetitive animations. I just feel bad for the developers because they worked so hard to bring us these and introduce the possibility for more animals to be introduced.

Also, here's a theory or two of mine: are the aviary mechanics of JWE2 copyrighted in such a way that they can't be used in other games? OR... Are the developers of PZ not as in-touch with the JWE2? OR... Is the game not capable of supporting the JWE2 aviary mechanics? Let me know what you think.

Both pterosaurs and JWE2!aviaries are huge. I think it's likely these calculations won't work for small realistic birds, especially with how detailed building in PZ is, compared to the extremely limited building in JWE2.

 

[FlameWizard492]

Both pterosaurs and JWE2!aviaries are huge. I think it's likely these calculations won't work for small realistic birds, especially with how detailed building in PZ is, compared to the extremely limited building in JWE2.

I was thinking that when I was typing my take, but I forgot to type it.

 

[NZFanatic]

Also, here's a theory or two of mine: are the aviary mechanics of JWE2 copyrighted in such a way that they can't be used in other games? OR... Are the developers of PZ not as in-touch with the JWE2? OR... Is the game not capable of supporting the JWE2 aviary mechanics? Let me know what you think.

Both games are on the same engine, so there's no issue there. It's probably just that the JWE aviaries are janky as hell and they don't want to mar PZ with it.

 

[FoxyDee]

I think the decision was a combination of game performance (JWE 2 have such limited building that they can allow to cut off a bit of performance for the free flight, but in PZ where you have thousands of pieces and guests and hundreds of animals- not so much) and the hitboxes of free flying (JWE 2 aviaries are huge, so the animals have alot of space for the free flight to not look weird, but in much smaller and realistic PZ aviaries, it would probably be nightmare for them to make then free flight in such a small space).