Allow more customization!
- Thread starter vivazichi
- Start date
Different shades: Quite a few people asked for this. While I have no problem with the current options - I'm not against any addition on that part.
What kind of shades/options do you expect?
Allow mods: I'm going to exclude modding/creating new animals for this argument. That conflicts with future DLC (why buy the DLC when a modder made this animal too?)
What kind of mods are you thinking about?
Personally I think mod support could/should be added when the game doesn't receive anymore DLC/support. But I'm not sure how this would work with Steam, because PC/PZ already uses the workshop in a different way that other games do.
I too wish you could use any biome’s colours on any map. If that’s not possible I wish you could switch so for example you could use the temperate ‘palate’ on the tundra or taiga map. In particular I don’t like the tundra grass colours at all and wish I could have normal green grass on that map.
Mods, for me, are often necessary as they can help to give players what they want without "bothering" developers.
So mods for different colors of staff clothes, mod for better filtering, mod for changing weather that should be for different biome, mod that changes how exhibits work (automatic sell of offsprings etc.). Mod that allows all terrain paints in all biomes (it cannot be in the game from developers because some PCs wouldn't be able to run it), mod that adds more names for animals, mod that perhaps allows you to edit animal info in sandbox (age, stats etc.), mod that changes how tabs and multiple windows are opened.
There is so much room for those. Way too much that Frontier can ever possibly add. That is why we need modders and mods. Yes, some mods will stop working, but you should always check if your mods are up to date and I think for example Steam workshop is much safer that mods from nexus etc. that just don't have that same support and can break your game completely.
I have NEVER seen a game that would become worse by allowing mods. It was always a big improvement.
Actually I LOVE that every biome of the map has its own ground colors, so accurate and realistic, the same zoo with colors from different biomas would look ridiculous like the ones is Zoo Tycoon 2
That's your opinion but not one I share.
I'm not talking about having every enclosure, sorry 'habitat', in a different biome. I'm talking about being able to have green grass on a 'tundra' map set in Hokkaido in Japan. Or a green lawn or paddock in my zoo set in grassland Australia. Why would that be ridiculous?
Do you know what I do think looks ridiculous? A snow leopard enclosure with snow in it in a temperate zoo that doesn't melt because of 'coolers'.
I use the tundra map primarily because I want to have the possibility of snow on the ground in order to make a year-round real-time zoo. I have hardly have any grass in that zoo I'm working on now because I really dislike the 'tundra' grass which is neither accurate nor realistic. It's set in Hokkaido, a cold area in the winter near mountains but where there is green grass not that yellowy coloured stuff in the game.
Green grass in a zoo doesn't look ridiculous, it's normal, even in colder climate areas and also in some hotter and drier areas.
We have no option to have real green grass on the so-called taiga map but look at Alpine meadows, they have green grass.
I'm also working on a zoo using the grassland map. It is set in Australia and I'd really like some green grass there as well as brown soil. But that isn't possible either. Look at Australian zoos in rural locations, they often have green grass, not just yellow savannah grasses.
Zoos also have different kinds of sand and dirt to create a sense of place and the natural habitat of the animals.
Zoos are their own created and cultivated environments, they aren't the wild, and I don't think it's too controversial to suggest that just a basic green grass and brown dirt might be available to every biome even if you can't have total flexibility of biome painting - which would be my ideal.
Recently someone in Discord mentioned a very detailed point against mods (I somewhat agree/disagree with this).
In short: Game developers want to give your vision of their game and mods might ruin the original vision of the game.
Something he also mentioned is that (newer) Denuvo versions (DRM) doesn't allow editing of certain files. I don't know how much of this is true.
I will only mention his first example:
- Zoo keeper mode (like ZT2) is requested sometimes on this forum. PZ has more focus on management than previous zoo games and that feature could conflict with their intention of the game.
I'm not talking about not allowing mods. My biggest issue: Losing progress. That's something I've seen countless times. Losing savegame/gamebreaking glitches
Also fixing/finding bugs will become a lot more difficult. You can only rely on un-modded reported issues, which you can't indentify based on just their issue.
I play/played some games on modded servers.
A lot of people made suggestions for mods but the owner of a current server explained many times how certain mods influence performance, cause unique bugs or are conflicting with others. He mentioned at least 50% have flaws. (FPS issues/crashes)
Recently a modder updated the most popular mod in a game twice, with some people losing their +500 hours progress and 2 weeks later again.
Just pointing out that not all mods are all that great. There are great examples of good Mod support: Skyrim is mentioned a lot of times, Ark Survival Evolved, Cities Skylines, Arma2/DayZ and even WWE2k19. I know Skyrim/Ark/Cities has a lot of bad programmed mods but also a nice selection of very high QoL mods.
Since there's also an online part of the game, mods would allow for cheating online or influencing the game-experience for non-modders.
Or cracking the DRM of a game.
Or like GTAV will install harmfull software.
Or maybe even much simpler: the Cobra-Engine can't handle modding/mod-tools that well.
Just to be sure
, i'm not against modding but I really think a game needs to be fully "fixed" and all features be added, to have a good mod community.Since everybody has different opinions I think the only right thing to do is be as realist as they can be, but yes, green grass is available almost everywhere, so it make sense to have it in every map
[Long, but detailed
)][Addresses Several Comments in the Thread]
Different Shades(Terrain Paint Options***): I think generally in regards to Terrain Painting, but if I were to talk on and on about it, it would bleed into color and even water as a whole. The grass is a single color that doesn’t vary in shading, depth or texture within each biome, and generally within each biome, the grass can be less than accurate.
For example, the Tropical Rainforest biome that I choose alot for Sandbox gameplay, the grass is a vivid lime green that can appear yellow and would apply more in the African plains. (I would LOVE a deep emerald green grass)
My point all in all with ‘Different shades’, I’ll word that differently, Terrain Options really, is that I think there could be an easy expansion of the options for terrain. I’m talking moss, dark chocolate brown dirt, clays, muds, gravel, sandstone, lava?, different colors of water (aqua, swampy, ocean to lake to pond greens or blues or grays), different grasses (jade green, army green, shamrock, fern, sea green, forest green, olive green, etcetc)- just think of the variety of the earth and the minerals within the ground and there comes plenty of shading players can do on their own with more options. With more colors of grass, I can shade hills and mountains on my own. There’s no telling what the artistic people of the PZ community will put out with newfound ability.
Mods: I play a few games when I have time, and every single one I play except maybe 2? allow mods. Then again I play like 5 games. I’ve been waiting for people to come out with mods for this game since I got it for Christmas because it seems it has and continues to have a fairly active community so I was excited to see in what way people would imagine the game and offer mods for it. Even little cheat codes to work around issues in Franchise mode for unlimited money or something else (I never play Franchise but just little workarounds that the community would figure out with time). But it’s like there’s nothing, everywhere I look. Limited community innovation in regards to mods or the like. Even the workshop is kind of sparse at times.
But that can be attributed to the community just not having those types of people, those people just not doing anything, inactive people, or Frontier games could just have a solid base against modders and good code. Or a lack of options.
So I just figured mods weren’t allowed, but if they in fact aren’t, I was thinking mods that expand the players ability/options (choices).
For example, I would love the ability to micromanage a bit more, since the keepers don’t do their jobs a lot of the time, by being able to assign certain keepers to certain dishes in Habitats. Even a mod that would allow multiple gates for staff to enter through into a Habitat, because we had that in ZT2, and it was a huge help. More nature too (literally every species of plant).
Random Mod Ideas: Increase albino frequency, interspecies breeding (ligers, hyena-wolves), more plants/nature, customization of staff uniforms/colors, add-ons to in game characters, different shops/food shops, keeper pov, different barrier options, different path options, even adding new animals (questionable bc of future DLC), different types of crime (trespassing), storylines for visitors, variety in animal coats (individual traits- scars, deformities, dots, limps, not just mirrored stripes) etcetc- there’s endless options.
I look at the difference between variety of architecture and building pieces and then the variety of animals or animal care pieces or plants and see a difference. I get the base of this game is building a zoo, but for someone like me who bought the game for the animals, I literally never look at the construction pieces or buildings except lights and the basic staff facilities. There are a few pockets I’ve seen on Reddit forums and YT comment sections of people who care more about the animal side of the game, rather than building a grand franchise, and are sad about so little to explore except breeding/release. This game is golden with its graphics, but it feels lacking in regards to the animal realm. That’s why Keeper POV is so popular, because it would allow more interaction with the animals as if you were actually making a difference with the animals.
I saw somewhere (Reddit?) that someone wanted mods but they were thinking along the lines of modding the animals and putting out reskins. I don’t know if reskins would classify as ripping off Frontier or the game, but I think reskins would be cool if there was like black lions or tigers, different wolf coats (white, black, ambers, golds, salt and pepper, etc), that type of thing.
I think mods wouldn’t limit or hurt Frontiers ability to make DLC, just the people who mod parts of DLC they bought, that mod wouldnt be viable for those who don’t have that mod, like the Sims, if you don’t have the pack, the mod won’t work. The Sims adds a new expansion pack or DLC all the time and it never impacts the insane modding community there, if anything it spurs them on because of the EA scam scheme.
Someone above mentioned mods being a threat to player data, but I don’t think that would be the case. If one downloads mods, they need to be prepared that they are downloading a separate batch of files that can do anything. If they don’t know the warning signs of scams, faulty downloads, or incompatible mods, not up to date mods, broken mods, they should figure out this first, and find the ones that work. Mods are also generally never a threat to entire saves unless a mods folder was combined with the base game because usually the modded content is corrupted and vanishes if it ends up incompatible, leaving only the base game left.
basically I just want more options haha. I love the game, but there are some major annoyances that could be fixed easily. Sorry this was so long! But if a Dev or Reviewer reads this, I wanted to explain the thought process of people and why there are certain things people want.
Good day/night to everyone reading!!
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Mods are threat for player if they are unsupported and player has to rewrite core files of the game to get the mod working. If you want to reverse this, it's much more complicated and it could break your game if you don't do it correctly. With steam workshop it's just subscribe/unsubscribe or other games have mods folder for them.[Long, but detailed
[Addresses Several Comments in the Thread]
Different Shades(Terrain Paint Options***): I think generally in regards to Terrain Painting, but if I were to talk on and on about it, it would bleed into color and even water as a whole. The grass is a single color that doesn’t vary in shading, depth or texture within each biome, and generally within each biome, the grass can be less than accurate.
For example, the Tropical Rainforest biome that I choose alot for Sandbox gameplay, the grass is a vivid lime green that can appear yellow and would apply more in the African plains. (I would LOVE a deep emerald green grass)
My point all in all with ‘Different shades’, I’ll word that differently, Terrain Options really, is that I think there could be an easy expansion of the options for terrain. I’m talking moss, dark chocolate brown dirt, clays, muds, gravel, sandstone, lava?, different colors of water (aqua, swampy, ocean to lake to pond greens or blues or grays), different grasses (jade green, army green, shamrock, fern, sea green, forest green, olive green, etcetc)- just think of the variety of the earth and the minerals within the ground and there comes plenty of shading players can do on their own with more options. With more colors of grass, I can shade hills and mountains on my own. There’s no telling what the artistic people of the PZ community will put out with newfound ability.
Mods: I play a few games when I have time, and every single one I play except maybe 2? allow mods. Then again I play like 5 games. I’ve been waiting for people to come out with mods for this game since I got it for Christmas because it seems it has and continues to have a fairly active community so I was excited to see in what way people would imagine the game and offer mods for it. Even little cheat codes to work around issues in Franchise mode for unlimited money or something else (I never play Franchise but just little workarounds that the community would figure out with time). But it’s like there’s nothing, everywhere I look. Limited community innovation in regards to mods or the like. Even the workshop is kind of sparse at times.
But that can be attributed to the community just not having those types of people, those people just not doing anything, inactive people, or Frontier games could just have a solid base against modders and good code. Or a lack of options.
So I just figured mods weren’t allowed, but if they in fact aren’t, I was thinking mods that expand the players ability/options (choices).
For example, I would love the ability to micromanage a bit more, since the keepers don’t do their jobs a lot of the time, by being able to assign certain keepers to certain dishes in Habitats. Even a mod that would allow multiple gates for staff to enter through into a Habitat, because we had that in ZT2, and it was a huge help. More nature too (literally every species of plant).
Random Mod Ideas: Increase albino frequency, interspecies breeding (ligers, hyena-wolves), more plants/nature, customization of staff uniforms/colors, add-ons to in game characters, different shops/food shops, keeper pov, different barrier options, different path options, even adding new animals (questionable bc of future DLC), different types of crime (trespassing), storylines for visitors, variety in animal coats (individual traits- scars, deformities, dots, limps, not just mirrored stripes) etcetc- there’s endless options.
I look at the difference between variety of architecture and building pieces and then the variety of animals or animal care pieces or plants and see a difference. I get the base of this game is building a zoo, but for someone like me who bought the game for the animals, I literally never look at the construction pieces or buildings except lights and the basic staff facilities. There are a few pockets I’ve seen on Reddit forums and YT comment sections of people who care more about the animal side of the game, rather than building a grand franchise, and are sad about so little to explore except breeding/release. This game is golden with its graphics, but it feels lacking in regards to the animal realm. That’s why Keeper POV is so popular, because it would allow more interaction with the animals as if you were actually making a difference with the animals.
I saw somewhere (Reddit?) that someone wanted mods but they were thinking along the lines of modding the animals and putting out reskins. I don’t know if reskins would classify as ripping off Frontier or the game, but I think reskins would be cool if there was like black lions or tigers, different wolf coats (white, black, ambers, golds, salt and pepper, etc), that type of thing.
I think mods wouldn’t limit or hurt Frontiers ability to make DLC, just the people who mod parts of DLC they bought, that mod wouldnt be viable for those who don’t have that mod, like the Sims, if you don’t have the pack, the mod won’t work. The Sims adds a new expansion pack or DLC all the time and it never impacts the insane modding community there, if anything it spurs them on because of the EA scam scheme.
Someone above mentioned mods being a threat to player data, but I don’t think that would be the case. If one downloads mods, they need to be prepared that they are downloading a separate batch of files that can do anything. If they don’t know the warning signs of scams, faulty downloads, or incompatible mods, not up to date mods, broken mods, they should figure out this first, and find the ones that work. Mods are also generally never a threat to entire saves unless a mods folder was combined with the base game because usually the modded content is corrupted and vanishes if it ends up incompatible, leaving only the base game left.
basically I just want more options haha. I love the game, but there are some major annoyances that could be fixed easily. Sorry this was so long! But if a Dev or Reviewer reads this, I wanted to explain the thought process of people and why there are certain things people want.
Good day/night to everyone reading!!
With mods it brings unlimited creativity and options and developers then can pay attention to more important things than milion little different ideas that could be easily solved by modders instead.
Would it be possible to do something like in Planet coaster? You could swap out a terrrain texture with another. In Planet Zoo where you need each type (short/long grass, dirt, rock, etc) you could for example swap out Grassland's 'long grass' for the Tundra 'long grass'.
Anyway, I'd love this feature. I find myself only using the grassland map because I like the textures, but I'd love to have the background of the magnificent tropical map<3
Anyway, I'd love this feature. I find myself only using the grassland map because I like the textures, but I'd love to have the background of the magnificent tropical map<3
I’ve mentioned it before but I think it’s relevant here too: I’d love it if you could manually control temperature in sandbox mode as I’d love to have a year round zoo with real-time seasons and weather based on the temperate map with snow that stays on the ground once it stops snowing like you can do on the tundra map. And coolers aren’t a viable option for keeping snow on the whole map.