A suggestion to fix the exhibit animals

[tigris115]

With the help of discord user Randyclark914, I got a document concerning everything that's wrong with Planet Zoo's exhibit animals

It's a lot.

So he compiled a series of changes that would make the exhibit animals much more interesting and fun

CLICK HERE TO READ THE ORIGINAL DOCUMENT

Spoiler: Randy's Suggestions for Exhibit Animals

First off it would be naive to think that additional variations of the current exhibit platforms used in Planet Zoo would solve their limited potential within the game. Simply taking the exhibits and creating smaller and larger terrariums as options would not solve the current problem that they face. The main discrepancy when it comes to the current design choice and concept art is that neither is relevant to real life zoos or player’s preferences.

There is a case to be made that Planet Zoo is primarily a building simulation game that allows players to exercise maximum creativity when conceptualizing their designs. This is the complete opposite with the exhibits platforms, they are not only limited in their basic form but do not appeal to the average player since their repetitive and genetic design allows for very little customization.

Having the animals simply appear on one spot or the other at random times and places, makes it almost virtually impossible to mitigate the negatives found within the original design and create alternatives. The current approach of having diminutive species that require very little space in real life inside unrealistically large exhibits is also a commonly negative talking point amongst the players. Many have expressed how difficult it is at times to not only spot the critters but to even appreciate their detail.

My primary recommendation for the Planet Zoo team is to provide the players with the animals found inside the exhibits. They can keep their stationary postures and just allow for minimal animations and movement as it is currently the case. Having insects, reptiles and amphibians with mostly very limited movement is not only an acceptable compromise, since these particular animals are mostly inactive in zoos, but it is one that the community is sure to embrace.

Players will then be able to not only create elaborate and detailed animal terrariums that are fully customizable since all of the pieces will be available to them in the construction tab, but it should also free up memory space in the game and enhance performance.

In short it is a winning situation for everyone involved, and it would bring the exhibit animals to the same creative standard as habitat animals in the game. Where the average player would usually bypass this feature or spend very little time on it, they can now spend countless hours setting up their limitless customizable exhibits and placing the animals exactly where they want them to be.

Ideally all of the scenery pieces currently found inside the exhibit terrariums would be made available to the players in the construction and scenery tabs. Adding a bigger selection of these smaller natural scenery pieces would be also highly recommended. Additionally a bigger range of plexiglass shapes and sizes, allowing for curved and circular designs would be ideal as well.

Reptiles, amphibians and insects are highly represented in zoo collections since not only they occupy less space but in most cases are easier to procure by the same institutions. Planet Zoo’s current lineup is extremely limited in comparison to other collection areas of the game, as the animals are tied to the current exhibit system. A much bigger selection of these creatures would be a must to generate interest within the players community and enhance the game’s own faithful dedication to virtual zoo building.

Spoiler: Image Concepts

 

[NZFanatic]

The idea doesn't work - what makes an exhibit an exhibit isn't the box, it's the features that go with it. You can't just put together a random construct and add an exhibit animal as a prop, because then you can't manage the welfare.

 

[Laura_91]

I wouldn't say planet zoo is primarily a building game. You dont have to build amazing zoos to plays. Its primarily a management game.

 

[KönigDerKaffeebohnen]

That argument is flawed, as you dont have to do management to play the game, as we have sandbox mode and franchise honestly just being slowburn sandbox mode.
There are just different groups of players with different priorities

 

[Laura_91]

I understand what you're saying but to me its more management. Franchise, challenge and career/timed is more management to me which is why I said this. As more mode

 

[KönigDerKaffeebohnen]

The idea doesn't work - what makes an exhibit an exhibit isn't the box, it's the features that go with it. You can't just put together a random construct and add an exhibit animal as a prop, because then you can't manage the welfare.

I understand that point, but honestly i think having to sacrifice two sliders you use once isnt the worst thing.
Also we could hace something like making the exhibit a special variation of the group system, to indicate for the game were the edges are.
I also like the idear of the exhibit animals being placeable as pseudo objects, which could Come in handy on things like tropical houses.

 

[NZFanatic]

I understand that point, but honestly i think having to sacrifice two sliders you use once isnt the worst thing.

The problem is it defeats the purpose. If you make them into objects, they cease being animals, which is definitely not something Frontier would ever do (they've already shot down the idea of making animal-based special effects; this is the same thing, more or less).

 

[yoav_r]

With the help of discord user Randyclark914, I got a document concerning everything that's wrong with Planet Zoo's exhibit animals

It's a lot.

So he compiled a series of changes that would make the exhibit animals much more interesting and fun

CLICK HERE TO READ THE ORIGINAL DOCUMENT

Spoiler: Randy's Suggestions for Exhibit Animals

First off it would be naive to think that additional variations of the current exhibit platforms used in Planet Zoo would solve their limited potential within the game. Simply taking the exhibits and creating smaller and larger terrariums as options would not solve the current problem that they face. The main discrepancy when it comes to the current design choice and concept art is that neither is relevant to real life zoos or player’s preferences.

There is a case to be made that Planet Zoo is primarily a building simulation game that allows players to exercise maximum creativity when conceptualizing their designs. This is the complete opposite with the exhibits platforms, they are not only limited in their basic form but do not appeal to the average player since their repetitive and genetic design allows for very little customization.

Having the animals simply appear on one spot or the other at random times and places, makes it almost virtually impossible to mitigate the negatives found within the original design and create alternatives. The current approach of having diminutive species that require very little space in real life inside unrealistically large exhibits is also a commonly negative talking point amongst the players. Many have expressed how difficult it is at times to not only spot the critters but to even appreciate their detail.

My primary recommendation for the Planet Zoo team is to provide the players with the animals found inside the exhibits. They can keep their stationary postures and just allow for minimal animations and movement as it is currently the case. Having insects, reptiles and amphibians with mostly very limited movement is not only an acceptable compromise, since these particular animals are mostly inactive in zoos, but it is one that the community is sure to embrace.

Players will then be able to not only create elaborate and detailed animal terrariums that are fully customizable since all of the pieces will be available to them in the construction tab, but it should also free up memory space in the game and enhance performance.

In short it is a winning situation for everyone involved, and it would bring the exhibit animals to the same creative standard as habitat animals in the game. Where the average player would usually bypass this feature or spend very little time on it, they can now spend countless hours setting up their limitless customizable exhibits and placing the animals exactly where they want them to be.

Ideally all of the scenery pieces currently found inside the exhibit terrariums would be made available to the players in the construction and scenery tabs. Adding a bigger selection of these smaller natural scenery pieces would be also highly recommended. Additionally a bigger range of plexiglass shapes and sizes, allowing for curved and circular designs would be ideal as well.

Reptiles, amphibians and insects are highly represented in zoo collections since not only they occupy less space but in most cases are easier to procure by the same institutions. Planet Zoo’s current lineup is extremely limited in comparison to other collection areas of the game, as the animals are tied to the current exhibit system. A much bigger selection of these creatures would be a must to generate interest within the players community and enhance the game’s own faithful dedication to virtual zoo building.

Spoiler: Image Concepts

Could you make it a bullet point, for readability?

 

[yoav_r]

I understand that point, but honestly i think having to sacrifice two sliders you use once isnt the worst thing.
Also we could hace something like making the exhibit a special variation of the group system, to indicate for the game were the edges are.
I also like the idear of the exhibit animals being placeable as pseudo objects, which could Come in handy on things like tropical houses.

If that's the case I'd say the solution would be to increase exhibit management. Have the exhibits react to weather, time of year, have them break if they are not maintained...

I'd hate animals as scenery objects. It defeats the purpose of a zoo game

 

[justGoron]

I wouldn't make the exhibit animals placable, because that interferes with the management aspect of the game as many here have mentioned.
I can think of some other things that could work instead though:

- null exhibits, the simplest solution that could already allow a lot more creativity, not in necessarily exhibit design, but in the design of the building that houses them. A way to remove the glass and black top/bottom, would allow the player to be a lot more creative with them, like mods that do this have shown. For example, butting a bullfrog in a little pond enclosure instead of a glass box.

- size variations, especially in combination with null exhibits, would allow for even more creativity in the design of reptile houses. A 1x2x1m for frogs and small critters, 2x2x2 for the medium ones, like snakes, and perhaps add a 4x8x4 which I think is more appropriate for things like iguanas. (I'm trying not to list too many new sizes as it's simply not feasible to create that many).

- if you do want to give players full control over the exhibit design I would suggest something similar to what this post is saying, but instead of letting players place down animals as props, I'd do something different.
First, you'd need some kind of item that tells the game where an exhibit is, so staff can access it. It would be an exhibit version of the habitat gate. Let's call it an exhibit gate.
Then we can build our exhibit around it, like the document mentions, current exhibits seem to have a bunch of designated spots for animals to randomly appear in. So what if you let players place these spots using a prop.
The prop could be a blue, transparent version of the animal that only appears when you have the construction tab opened. When selecting this animal spawn point you can assign it to an exhibit gate in its menu, similar to vista points.
This would tell the game which spawn points belong to which exhibit (if you have a better idea for this, do share, perhaps grouping up spawn points and gates could auto assign them to each other).
In this menu you might also be able to change the animals pose (a snake being curled up or not, etc), so you don't need separate props for each animal and pose.
This, combined with making the exhibit props available to build with, would let players make some amazing exhibits, while keeping the same management capabilities (aside from swapping species on the fly, since the exhibit would be built for a specific species).

 

[Seedric]

i personally like the build but its...
like what other said you cant turn exhibit animals as Props.
it just doesnt make sense. and dont forget in the exhibit UI menu. you need to maintain the Humidity, Temperature and ETC.
which would be hard to add in the build. not including the enrichment tools you need.
example. a goliath frog needs a Mister (cant remember the name)
which would be hard to implement. yes Planet Zoo is a building game but its mostly a Management Game.
you dont have to make a full sized zoo with all animals. you just sometimes need the management side (like the Franchise mode)
so you cant just add an animal as a prop. it ruins the game. since the game talks about Conservation and Animal Welfare.
it just not right to turn animals as Props. you could use the statues if you still want it, but not the real animal.

 

[tigris115]

tbh, thinking it through, maybe making the animals into props isn't the hottest idea.

I still think exhibit animals need fixing but maybe something like this, complete with example pictures I made in Blender

My take on exhibits aka. the Goldilocks proposal

So I was looking at PZ's animal exhibits (the terrariums) and IMO, while they're the perfect size for some animals, others are too big or small for the 1 size we have. Lemme lay it down with some pictures The human model I made is 1.8 meters tall, the green block represents the size of a green...

forums.frontier.co.uk