Hey everyone, veteran Planet Zoo player here with over 700 hours played with my wishlist of things to make Planet Zoo the best it can be. I hope Frontier reads this and adds as many as they are able to make a great game even greater!
#1: A real expansion. Not DLC with only four animals, a full blown expansion with lots of new animals and some new gameplay features (bring back Bernie, I miss that dude). Maybe it's cheating to say this as one wish, but it's something players have been clamoring for, so it takes my top wishlist spot (I promise the others are MUCH more specific). The aquatic DLC was their best to date and Frontier did a great job with it, but a lot of people felt this was a missed opportunity by only including four animals (3 of which are from South America). Aviaries for birds like toucans, parrots and cockatoos have been highly requested as an idea (bats could also fit under this category). Other ideas are a petting zoo, tour guides, or VIP animal experiences guests can purchase.
#2: Pure animal pack DLCs with more animals/variants that don't include any building pieces, just animal enrichment items for the new animals. There is so much untapped potential/profit here for Frontier and would really help keep the community going strong. Can revisit multiple biomes in the same pack that have already been done in DLC but still have popular animals missing (sloth, capybara, platypus, Tasmanian devil, arctic fox, walrus, etc) and include variants like the Asian small clawed otter and African penguin. Being spoon fed only four animals for paid DLC every 4 months is really disappointing for a lot of players.
#3 The faux rocks/trees/waterfalls/murals look amazing and are a real game changer for habitat/exhibit design. Would love to see more variations of them to use in our zoos (especially big set pieces that act as natural barriers for habitats and even a faux rock barrier option). This would be the only other pack I would love to see them do like they've done so far with 235 pieces and 4 animals, a "faux items pack."
#4 Iron out the pathing system. "Clunky" is the word I would use to describe it. It's really frustrating with how it attempts or refuses to auto connect. All too often there is a tiny bit of space between path pieces that the game refuses to connect to each other, creating two dead ends or deleting awkward swathes of path portions when you try to fix it. There should be some sort of option that allows players to easily fill in dead space and an option that allows players to fill in circles for plazas. Pathing inside of buildings is just a nightmare (Side note, please fix half of guest's legs disappearing into the floor when players put a floor piece over a path). In general, pathing gets obstructed by too many things, and tunneling or flattening for pathing requires too large of a hit box.
#5 Allow Franchise Mode zoos to be shared/viewed by other players. Lots of us like the management part of the game and only want to play in Franchise mode but still share our creations.
#6 Allow Franchise mode to fully delete the standard entrance and freely place guest spawners and zoo entrances like in Sandbox mode. That standard entrance you can't fully delete or change is really annoying after making multiple zoos and limits creativity and starting layouts in Franchise Mode. Also would be really nice to be able to place guest spawners and entrances where players want them. Is there a reason why this is limited in Franchise Mode?
#7 Longer length curved walls (4m and 6m length options) and curved roof pieces to fit them. Would add SO MUCH to round building design. I don't think buildings using the "mud pillar axis rotate" trick look particularly appealing and it's a big barrier to newer players.
#8 Clearly show where the problem is when trying to raise the water volume to a certain line or place a path that is "obstructed by water volume." I have wasted sooo much time trying to figure this out in my zoos and it's not always consistent either. Also, when deleting and refilling water volumes, players can't fill water volume to the level it was previously at if there is a path over the water, the path has to be deleted first before filling the water and THEN the path can be replaced. Very tedious and annoying when checking water levels.
#9 Staff vehicles/garage/service roads. If you don't want to make a keeper hut or vet center right next to every single habitat, now you can have your staff drive there in a fraction of the time. Would greatly expand zoo layout options.
#10 A "generate map" button (with more backdrop options like the new Red River Barn zoo set in OR) so players don't always have to start a zoo on flat terrain. Many players don't want to spend time on the terraforming aspect when creating zoos. Could really mix things up and inspire players with a set map to work with.
#11 Toggle what type of biome you want your grass to be in a habitat when you paint or pick your own textures to use on your map. It'd be super nice if we could have yellow savanna grass for our African habitats in the same zoo where we can have the dark green grass for a South American habitats.
#12 Make it so that reptiles and birds make nests and lay eggs. The other way animals are born in game is good, but since Frontier is so focused on conservation this should really be implemented to appropriate animals in their next major update for accuracy. I think animal birth/releasing into the wild should be a bigger celebratory event in general with an announcement to your whole zoo like what happens in Jurassic World Evolution when you create a new dinosaur, and even involve vets on site to assist animals that have a low reproduction rating.
Issues with Guest AI
#13 Fix erratic guest thoughts on whether or not their view of the animal is good or how much effort was put into the habitat design. It's not helpful feedback when guests literally all say different things that don't make any sense, especially on habitats that are gorgeous and fulfill the animals every need.
#14 Stop guest AI from viewing habitats through barriers and from far away. Make them instead go up to the barrier and use the appropriate viewing areas. Also encourage guest AI to explore underwater viewing areas for the new diving animals in addition to an above water level view.
#15 Set limit on the number of guests allowed to walk-through a habitat at one time by making a que path for walkthrough habitats. Exhibits shouldn't always be a four lane highway due to "shy" animals and their stress levels.
That's all I got. Let me know if you agree!
#1: A real expansion. Not DLC with only four animals, a full blown expansion with lots of new animals and some new gameplay features (bring back Bernie, I miss that dude). Maybe it's cheating to say this as one wish, but it's something players have been clamoring for, so it takes my top wishlist spot (I promise the others are MUCH more specific). The aquatic DLC was their best to date and Frontier did a great job with it, but a lot of people felt this was a missed opportunity by only including four animals (3 of which are from South America). Aviaries for birds like toucans, parrots and cockatoos have been highly requested as an idea (bats could also fit under this category). Other ideas are a petting zoo, tour guides, or VIP animal experiences guests can purchase.
#2: Pure animal pack DLCs with more animals/variants that don't include any building pieces, just animal enrichment items for the new animals. There is so much untapped potential/profit here for Frontier and would really help keep the community going strong. Can revisit multiple biomes in the same pack that have already been done in DLC but still have popular animals missing (sloth, capybara, platypus, Tasmanian devil, arctic fox, walrus, etc) and include variants like the Asian small clawed otter and African penguin. Being spoon fed only four animals for paid DLC every 4 months is really disappointing for a lot of players.
#3 The faux rocks/trees/waterfalls/murals look amazing and are a real game changer for habitat/exhibit design. Would love to see more variations of them to use in our zoos (especially big set pieces that act as natural barriers for habitats and even a faux rock barrier option). This would be the only other pack I would love to see them do like they've done so far with 235 pieces and 4 animals, a "faux items pack."
#4 Iron out the pathing system. "Clunky" is the word I would use to describe it. It's really frustrating with how it attempts or refuses to auto connect. All too often there is a tiny bit of space between path pieces that the game refuses to connect to each other, creating two dead ends or deleting awkward swathes of path portions when you try to fix it. There should be some sort of option that allows players to easily fill in dead space and an option that allows players to fill in circles for plazas. Pathing inside of buildings is just a nightmare (Side note, please fix half of guest's legs disappearing into the floor when players put a floor piece over a path). In general, pathing gets obstructed by too many things, and tunneling or flattening for pathing requires too large of a hit box.
#5 Allow Franchise Mode zoos to be shared/viewed by other players. Lots of us like the management part of the game and only want to play in Franchise mode but still share our creations.
#6 Allow Franchise mode to fully delete the standard entrance and freely place guest spawners and zoo entrances like in Sandbox mode. That standard entrance you can't fully delete or change is really annoying after making multiple zoos and limits creativity and starting layouts in Franchise Mode. Also would be really nice to be able to place guest spawners and entrances where players want them. Is there a reason why this is limited in Franchise Mode?
#7 Longer length curved walls (4m and 6m length options) and curved roof pieces to fit them. Would add SO MUCH to round building design. I don't think buildings using the "mud pillar axis rotate" trick look particularly appealing and it's a big barrier to newer players.
#8 Clearly show where the problem is when trying to raise the water volume to a certain line or place a path that is "obstructed by water volume." I have wasted sooo much time trying to figure this out in my zoos and it's not always consistent either. Also, when deleting and refilling water volumes, players can't fill water volume to the level it was previously at if there is a path over the water, the path has to be deleted first before filling the water and THEN the path can be replaced. Very tedious and annoying when checking water levels.
#9 Staff vehicles/garage/service roads. If you don't want to make a keeper hut or vet center right next to every single habitat, now you can have your staff drive there in a fraction of the time. Would greatly expand zoo layout options.
#10 A "generate map" button (with more backdrop options like the new Red River Barn zoo set in OR) so players don't always have to start a zoo on flat terrain. Many players don't want to spend time on the terraforming aspect when creating zoos. Could really mix things up and inspire players with a set map to work with.
#11 Toggle what type of biome you want your grass to be in a habitat when you paint or pick your own textures to use on your map. It'd be super nice if we could have yellow savanna grass for our African habitats in the same zoo where we can have the dark green grass for a South American habitats.
#12 Make it so that reptiles and birds make nests and lay eggs. The other way animals are born in game is good, but since Frontier is so focused on conservation this should really be implemented to appropriate animals in their next major update for accuracy. I think animal birth/releasing into the wild should be a bigger celebratory event in general with an announcement to your whole zoo like what happens in Jurassic World Evolution when you create a new dinosaur, and even involve vets on site to assist animals that have a low reproduction rating.
Issues with Guest AI
#13 Fix erratic guest thoughts on whether or not their view of the animal is good or how much effort was put into the habitat design. It's not helpful feedback when guests literally all say different things that don't make any sense, especially on habitats that are gorgeous and fulfill the animals every need.
#14 Stop guest AI from viewing habitats through barriers and from far away. Make them instead go up to the barrier and use the appropriate viewing areas. Also encourage guest AI to explore underwater viewing areas for the new diving animals in addition to an above water level view.
#15 Set limit on the number of guests allowed to walk-through a habitat at one time by making a que path for walkthrough habitats. Exhibits shouldn't always be a four lane highway due to "shy" animals and their stress levels.
That's all I got. Let me know if you agree!