" Education is a key focus for Planet Zoo. "
This is a statement that gets repeated en masse, and I believe it to be true! It's a huge aspect of the game, for Franchise, Challenge, Career, and even in Sandbox! So many zoo's whether they be created by newer, fantastical players or advanced and realistic players, education is a huge aspect to any zoo that you create within the game.
Now, whenever I build in my zoo's, I use a staple - Lion's Info Signs Pack. This is a huge collection for realism enthusiasts who are hoping to take their zoo's to the next level. While often times you go the zoo to look at the animals, I guarantee all of you at some point or another stop to take a look at the boards of text and images that the zoo has propped up conveniently right where you, the guest, view the animals from. If you wanna see the blueprints to which I'm referring to, check them out below:
Steam Workshop::Info Signs Pack - Modular and Recolorable
Now, I'm not a Franchise Player, I used to play Challenge Mode, but I found a new love for the "challenge" of Planet Zoo via Zoo Sims United, which I'll gladly talk about if anyone is curious as to how that works, but all that jazz aside, as I was placing down more and more education for my guests in my zoo, I noticed something that would make for a great quick feature for Planet Zoo Franchise / Challenge Players, much like the Vista Points and Keeper Talk Points from updates past.
I would love to see "Custom Education Points", they would simply serve the same purpose of the Vista Points, being Facility Items that you can simply link up to blueprint groups that would serve as education points for your visitors, bumping and boosting up education points which I understand is a key focus of the Challenge and Franchise modes. With this being said, you may be saying, "Leaf, you could simply use the Habitat Billboards for that same purpose! Well, let me just show you a bit of a difference in style via a compare and contrast below:
Number One is the standard Habitat Education Boards, and while I do applaud them for being simple, they are quite big, and don't work well for my personal style:
Second is an example of Lion's Education Boards, which are a lot more condensed, fit a lot more "text", and fit the style of Planet Zoo a lot more:
Second is an example of Lion's Education Boards, which are a lot more condensed, fit a lot more "text", and fit the style of Planet Zoo a lot more:
As for the actual facility item itself, I think it would fit best as a small and subdued item, basically a small circle on the ground that has an "i" symbol on it, representing information. I think this would be an easy-to-implement item that would reward the player with the same levels of education as a normal education board, by linking to both an animal as well as a prop group, and maybe get more players to use a lot more blueprints and custom builds in the process. Heck, it wouldn't even need to be physical education boards, I think a benefit of this type of system would be the ability to educate guests via scenes, depictions, artwork, statues, and even just natural setups that would demonstrate whatever needs to be put forward as education. Even just a setup of a house and how the families inside it interact and impact native wildlife would work as well. I even remember I made a loom that used Llama Wool back in my Foxborough Zoo's Children's section, and even an example of that could be used as well for education. I do hope Frontier takes in this idea or at least considers it, because I think it would be a worthwhile addition to players of all styles.
