Hi Everyone!
I have had quite a few people ask me how i build my zoos and especially newcomers to the game want to know what it really takes to build their local zoo. Each time i can easily write many paragraphs explaining the basics and how to understand scaling from pictures and online tools. So i believe it is time to share my knowledge of recreating zoos into one location - a guidebook!
Why not a video one may ask? There is simply far too much to cover for my standard in a video, also my Scottish accent isn't the best for those wanting to understand a detailed guide
Not just for recreations, i want to share all my knowledge about the game so those wanting to learn about advanced building techniques and zoo planning in a easy to read guide will all benefit from this. This will be a very long project over the course of more than a year as i have nearly 90 pages of content to write about
. Each month i plan to add a chapter, starting with the basics and slowly getting into the advanced parts of the game.
This guide will be compiled into a single word document/pdf for easy reading, each new chapter will see a new edition of the guide uploaded
Anyone have any thoughts, ideas or criticism? Be sure to leave a comment here
I have had quite a few people ask me how i build my zoos and especially newcomers to the game want to know what it really takes to build their local zoo. Each time i can easily write many paragraphs explaining the basics and how to understand scaling from pictures and online tools. So i believe it is time to share my knowledge of recreating zoos into one location - a guidebook!
Why not a video one may ask? There is simply far too much to cover for my standard in a video, also my Scottish accent isn't the best for those wanting to understand a detailed guide
Not just for recreations, i want to share all my knowledge about the game so those wanting to learn about advanced building techniques and zoo planning in a easy to read guide will all benefit from this. This will be a very long project over the course of more than a year as i have nearly 90 pages of content to write about
. Each month i plan to add a chapter, starting with the basics and slowly getting into the advanced parts of the game.This guide will be compiled into a single word document/pdf for easy reading, each new chapter will see a new edition of the guide uploaded
Content of the guide:
Contents PageIntroductionAll about this guideWhat is a recreation?Basics of building a recreation
- The Game map and scaling
- Understanding the game map
- How to scale recreations
- Troubles of scaling
- Scaling: Parking areas
- Scaling: Entrances
- Scaling: Plazas
- Scaling: Habitats
- Choosing a zoo to build
- Limitations of zoo size
- Size of the zoo and your computer
- Local zoo
- A zoo too far from home
- Collecting references
- Animal Collection
- Starting your recreation
- Picking a starting point
- Basics to parking and roads
- Building a large parking area
- Adding guest spawners
- Detailing parking areas and roads
- Guest Pathfinding
- Zoo Planning
- Measuring the scale from your starting point
- Using zoo maps to your benefit
- Where are your entrances?
- Entrance habitat
- Habitat zones
- Plazas and guest areas
- Staff areas
- General path layout
- Which way do i build?
- All about entrances
- Basics of pathing and how to hide grid paths
- How to hide terrain gaps in paths
- Placing your entrance gates
- How to build an object from a picture
- Building a basic shell for your entrance
- Making zoo signs
- The uses of custom media
- Detailing your zoo entrance
- Hiding staff facilities inside buildings
- Lighting up dark areas
- Thinking about buildings
- How to build with low piece counts
- Gift Shops
- Information centers
- Outdoor food shops
- Indoor Cafes
- Restaurants
- Generic staff buildings
- Flooring and paths
- Interior decorating and lighting
- How to tackle roofs
- Exterior decorating for guests
- Exterior decorating for staff
- Working with glass windows
- Signs on buildings
- Workshop Content
- Thinking about habitats
- How to turn a picture into a habitat
- Natural and manmade barriers
- Curved Barriers and their uses
- Habitat landscaping
- Underwater viewing
- Naturalistic habitats
- Immersive habitats
- Backstage shelters
- Guest viewing areas
- Building indoor habitat houses
- Custom fences
- Custom viewing shelters
- Custom barriers
- Custom Climbing frames
- Workshop Content
- Expanding your entrance
- Building plazas
- Building your entrance habitat
- Custom media and habitat signs
- Expanding your plaza into normal paths
- Remember the guest facilities
- Staff paths and gates
- Staff areas
- Away from the guests
- Foliage covered staff areas
- Open staff areas
- Staff hubs
- Connecting backstage shelters
- Worth detailing staff areas?
- Urban Connections
- Landscaping a zoo
- Landscaping without a heightmap
- Using online tools to measure the height
- How to measure terrain height in game
- Making hills
- Making Canyons
- Smoothing terrain for paths
- Adding paths on sloped terrain
- Working with water
- Making lakes and ponds
- Making waterfalls
- Performance considerations with landscaping
- All about nature
- Basics to natural surroundings
- Diversity with habitat zones
- Keeping exotic plants inside
- Using nature to hide barriers
- Mulch and its uses
- forests
- meadows
- Path edges
- plant beds
- aquatic environments
- Grass
- Rocks
- Gardens
- Buildings
- Transportation
- Basics of transportation
- Identifying rides in a zoo
- Safari jeep
- Riverboat
- Gondola
- Steam Train
- Monorail
- Making transport stations
- Making Railroad crossings
- Making transport rides over paths
- Performance limitations with transportation
- Static areas in your zoo
- Identifying empty areas in your zoo
- Identifying static areas in your zoo
- Making empty habitats
- Making Aviaries
- Making performance stages
Anyone have any thoughts, ideas or criticism? Be sure to leave a comment here
Last edited:
