Celebrity Animals

[Alexjh]

I've been seeing a lot of Moo Deng pictures and videos on my social media recently and it kind of made me think it'd be neat to have some kind of feature where very occassionally a random (already gold star?) animal will essentially become a sensation and gain a massive following attracting tons more visitors, even if it isn't necessarily normally a species that does command a big audience.

Not an essential feature by any means, but would just be a fun way of having a more unique experience in a single game where sometimes you might find yourself with an unexpected star at your zoo?

 

[DarthQuell]

I've been seeing a lot of Moo Deng pictures and videos on my social media recently and it kind of made me think it'd be neat to have some kind of feature where very occassionally a random (already gold star?) animal will essentially become a sensation and gain a massive following attracting tons more visitors, even if it isn't necessarily normally a species that does command a big audience.

Not an essential feature by any means, but would just be a fun way of having a more unique experience in a single game where sometimes you might find yourself with an unexpected star at your zoo?

That'd be cool. It'd be a fun little aspect where the celebrity has attracts a lot of visitors, so you need to manage its needs in a way where it won't get overly stressed

 

[USzoofan42]

Probably animals like hippos, elephants, cat species, giraffes and primates?

 

[Alexjh]

Probably animals like hippos, elephants, cat species, giraffes and primates?

I mean, those are the usual suspects sure, but I also think it'd just be neat if occassionally you got unexpected things that'd normally be low rated as the star. Like normally you aren't gonna pay attention to a single peacock or skunk or whatever, but sometimes celebrity moves in mysterious ways and itd an interesting challenge to have a normally quiet corner of your zoo suddenly innundated to see that one emu from the memes or whatever?

 

[jcp011c]

I've been wanting something like this! Not a mascot but a "featured" animal or featured species. Maybe that could bump up their appeal, either the individual or the entire species. You could change out what you wanted it to be, but could only have one selection at a time, be it an individual or all of the species.

I really like this idea because our local zoo has some of the bigger name animals - rhinos and tigers (usually elephants and giraffes but the habitats are currently being renovated). Yet..what's our species that is on nearly all of our marketing and advertisements? the Clouded Leopard.

It doesn't have to be the big names. It could be whatever you wanted it to be. If you wanted the dingo to be the star of your zoo, it can be.

 

[NZFanatic]

Rather, there should be a feature where you can 'push' an animal into social media (in-game). That's what actually happens with Moo-Deng and the like; they are advertised. It would be a fun little feature, to draw in extra guests or to boost marketing.

 

[USzoofan42]

Or it could end up being like april the giraffe (live streamed birth) or Fiona the hippo.

 

[RightWhale]

Rather, there should be a feature where you can 'push' an animal into social media (in-game). That's what actually happens with Moo-Deng and the like; they are advertised. It would be a fun little feature, to draw in extra guests or to boost marketing.

I had an idea for something like this once. If you build a Zoo in Franchise or Challenge you will have an auto generated Social Media account, which you can have some light control of. When you build a new habitat, have a baby animal, open a new food stand, aide in conservation, or plan events and discounts it will “share it online”. That way you can both Market yourself to make money ingame, but also track your zoos progress.

One idea I had is you could share this fictional Zoo account with your Steam and Console friends. Like if you click your friends character on the globe you can see one of their zoos and what’s been going on.

I think it would be a “relatively” easy and cool addition to make the game feel more alive, while also adding some more management features.

 

[NZFanatic]

If you build a Zoo in Franchise or Challenge you will have an auto generated Social Media account, which you can have some light control of. When you build a new habitat, have a baby animal, open a new food stand, aide in conservation, or plan events and discounts it will “share it online”. That way you can both Market yourself to make money ingame, but also track your zoos progress.

Zoo Tycoon 2013 had this feature, and kept track of released animals as well. I'd like it for Sandbox, too - for RP purposes.

 

[RightWhale]

Zoo Tycoon 2013 had this feature, and kept track of released animals as well. I'd like it for Sandbox, too - for RP purposes.

Man, for all the faults of that game the released animal features was not one of them.

I had some ideas for conservation based stuff, just to reflect real zoos, add some management, and also help with RP:

1. You can send Vets and Keepers to areas to do field research, obviously while gone you have to manage around the missing staff.
2. You can directly send money to certain conservation programs, likewise you can also buy land for habitats.
3. Releasing animals actually takes a more effort than just clicking release. I thought this would be a super cool feature, like having to have separate areas and keeping the animals away from the guests.

Just some cool stuff here or there, PZ was based with conservation in mind and I wish they released more into it.
Likewise organizations like the AZA has a SAFE program, which helps organize zoos and aquariums around specific conservation efforts. I think it would be so cool to have something like that in PZ. Like the most endangered animals have special files, that keeps global track across all zoos made. So you can see animals released, donations, and other conservation efforts being made.