I've been thinking a lot about this and thought I'd share my thoughts for whatever it's worth. I fully understand this isn't possible for PZ, and likely (the presumed) PZ2 is too far down the road for it to matter. But maybe if there are pieces you like you can include them.
Here's what I've come up with, PZ is really a game of three aspects: animals, building, zoo management.
Animals: PZ is incredible. Maybe the best ever.
Building: PZ is incredible. Maybe the best ever. The game should embrace it more than it does (suggestion below).
Management: Needs work.
BUILDING
MMO features:
I'll start off with building. This is clearly what brings a lot of the community together but all of it happens outside the game. That's a problem. You publish Elite: Dangerous so you have people on staff familiar with the pitfalls of MMOs. The enormous missed opportunity in PZ is to have people walk through others zoos (from a tegidcam perspective) and -- while going through the zoos -- offer praise for others work. "Praise" here has to be more than "good job!" it should be a core mechanic where builders get in game rewards for their work. Obviously there are pitfalls and you would probably need a small pack of economists on staff to ensure this works well and isn't either impossible for people who aren't DeLadySigner to get points or gamed by groups of friends but the upside is the most important aspect of the game for many becomes an integral part of the game.
Biomes between zones:
This is a minor thing, but modern zoos in Alaska can easily build an exhibit that looks exactly like a Congolese rain forest. With zoo size and success, you should be able to earn the right to use biomes outside of your base biome.
ZOO MANAGEMENT
This is where I think the biggest opportunity lies. When someone dreams of running a zoo, how many people think: "It would be so cool to sell 20 million goliath beetles every 10 minutes." It seems to me that far more fun would be in the actual design of the park. The difficulty levels could and should turn these on and off.
Habitat Design:
Right now, any habitat can be used for any animal of the same region. Habitats for an elephant, a gazelle, a giraffe, a hippo, and a lion have essentially no differences. Whereas in any real zoo, they have different needs. The elephant and the hippo need special cages to they can be accessed for medical treatment without injuring the keeper. There needs to be a way to get the lions in and out of their cages without becoming lunch. Hippos needs truly massive amounts of water filtering. So the management part of the game -- at least at the hard level -- should require building the backstage areas. Treatment facilities. Plumbing and electical grids. (Maybe on an easy difficulty the computer handles all of this, Medium requires the player the handle it for for the habitats, hard requires it for the habitats and facilities.) Make the design process encompass what the animals really need to survive in captivity.
Animal acquisition:
The game becomes -- for me -- a bit of a grind because everything is the same and all animals acquired through CC. Whereas, in reality, getting a giant panda or a dingo for your zoo is 100x more complicated than getting an African Elephant. The game should reflect that. A giant panda should be a gift from the PRC to zoos who have shown the ability to run an effective breeding program (breeding programs could also get a massive overhaul so the options aren't either "free for all" or "no babies for you"). It gives players a deeper goal and brings them back into the core game. In the US, it is shockingly easy to get a zebra or a lemur or even a bengal tiger, but if you want an African Elephant, you better know someone in the AZA.
Seasonal considerations:
In midwest zoos in the US, one of the challenges is having animals outside and happy in the summer and inside and happy in the winter. And, moreover, they have to be viewable in both scenarios. With the lightning fast (and often silly -- see snow in July) season changes this doesn't really make sense and, moreover, doesn't matter because just throwing down heaters/coolers solves the problem. But it should realistically be harder to keep an elephant alive in NYC than in Cairo. Similarly, the game could take this into account and New Yorkers be more thankful for seeing an elephant than Egyptians.
Just some thoughts. I'm sure many people reading this will think I am insane, but this is the Zoo game I would love to play.
Here's what I've come up with, PZ is really a game of three aspects: animals, building, zoo management.
Animals: PZ is incredible. Maybe the best ever.
Building: PZ is incredible. Maybe the best ever. The game should embrace it more than it does (suggestion below).
Management: Needs work.
BUILDING
MMO features:
I'll start off with building. This is clearly what brings a lot of the community together but all of it happens outside the game. That's a problem. You publish Elite: Dangerous so you have people on staff familiar with the pitfalls of MMOs. The enormous missed opportunity in PZ is to have people walk through others zoos (from a tegidcam perspective) and -- while going through the zoos -- offer praise for others work. "Praise" here has to be more than "good job!" it should be a core mechanic where builders get in game rewards for their work. Obviously there are pitfalls and you would probably need a small pack of economists on staff to ensure this works well and isn't either impossible for people who aren't DeLadySigner to get points or gamed by groups of friends but the upside is the most important aspect of the game for many becomes an integral part of the game.
Biomes between zones:
This is a minor thing, but modern zoos in Alaska can easily build an exhibit that looks exactly like a Congolese rain forest. With zoo size and success, you should be able to earn the right to use biomes outside of your base biome.
ZOO MANAGEMENT
This is where I think the biggest opportunity lies. When someone dreams of running a zoo, how many people think: "It would be so cool to sell 20 million goliath beetles every 10 minutes." It seems to me that far more fun would be in the actual design of the park. The difficulty levels could and should turn these on and off.
Habitat Design:
Right now, any habitat can be used for any animal of the same region. Habitats for an elephant, a gazelle, a giraffe, a hippo, and a lion have essentially no differences. Whereas in any real zoo, they have different needs. The elephant and the hippo need special cages to they can be accessed for medical treatment without injuring the keeper. There needs to be a way to get the lions in and out of their cages without becoming lunch. Hippos needs truly massive amounts of water filtering. So the management part of the game -- at least at the hard level -- should require building the backstage areas. Treatment facilities. Plumbing and electical grids. (Maybe on an easy difficulty the computer handles all of this, Medium requires the player the handle it for for the habitats, hard requires it for the habitats and facilities.) Make the design process encompass what the animals really need to survive in captivity.
Animal acquisition:
The game becomes -- for me -- a bit of a grind because everything is the same and all animals acquired through CC. Whereas, in reality, getting a giant panda or a dingo for your zoo is 100x more complicated than getting an African Elephant. The game should reflect that. A giant panda should be a gift from the PRC to zoos who have shown the ability to run an effective breeding program (breeding programs could also get a massive overhaul so the options aren't either "free for all" or "no babies for you"). It gives players a deeper goal and brings them back into the core game. In the US, it is shockingly easy to get a zebra or a lemur or even a bengal tiger, but if you want an African Elephant, you better know someone in the AZA.
Seasonal considerations:
In midwest zoos in the US, one of the challenges is having animals outside and happy in the summer and inside and happy in the winter. And, moreover, they have to be viewable in both scenarios. With the lightning fast (and often silly -- see snow in July) season changes this doesn't really make sense and, moreover, doesn't matter because just throwing down heaters/coolers solves the problem. But it should realistically be harder to keep an elephant alive in NYC than in Cairo. Similarly, the game could take this into account and New Yorkers be more thankful for seeing an elephant than Egyptians.
Just some thoughts. I'm sure many people reading this will think I am insane, but this is the Zoo game I would love to play.
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