Title. This list of suggestions is a long time in the making and I've put a lot of thought into it. Now that deep diving and billboards are done with (though diving still needs to be implemented for some animals and custom sounds need to be added) I have put much thought into what themes future updates should have. This is vastly different from my small changes thread because this is big picture stuff what will require a lot more work. Please let me know your thoughts and what you like and don't like. Hopefully the CMs see this and pass it along. We may end up getting one or two of these if they were already planned, otherwise this is probably stuff for next year. You may notice a slight overlap with my small changes list, I added just a few things from that here where I think they fit as part of a larger "theme".
Aviary Update
Overview: Adds in aviary only birds and bats, as well as aviary specific mammals (such as squirrels, sloths and kinkajous) to the game. It also moves the green and lesser-Antillean iguanas out of the exhibit system and into this one.
Features:
Exhibit System Update
Overview: Totally overhauls current exhibit system to provide more customizability
Features:
Animal TLC Overhaul Update
Overview: Completely updates and improves upon older models, skins and textures of previous animals. Frontier's dev team have improved their animal making skills noticeably, and it seems some animals from the base game are in slightly different art styles due to being made by different artists. This update would focus on unifying animals under one updated style.
Features:
Foliage/Landscaping Update
Overview: Similar to the above update, but for foliage. Adds many new options to the game as well as touching up some existing pieces.
Features:
That's all I've got. Let me know what you think.
Aviary Update
Overview: Adds in aviary only birds and bats, as well as aviary specific mammals (such as squirrels, sloths and kinkajous) to the game. It also moves the green and lesser-Antillean iguanas out of the exhibit system and into this one.
Features:
- Temperature and climate system copied from current exhibit system
- Has four preset themes for building shell (New World, Planet Zoo, Tropical Rainforest and African). These themes can be supplemented by adding your own building pieces.
- Also includes a "null" shell option so players can build their own shells/buildings, in whatever style they wish.
- Does not connect to path system, instead guests view animals simply by walking by them. Guests can look through all presets automatically. If the player adds a wall on one side of the aviary, guests will not be able to view the animal from that side.
- Walkthrough aviaries can be built by placing multiple aviaries nearby each other and building a path through and building around all.
- Depending on animal type added, a preset of foliage will be selected. These will always be plain looking trees, but there will be some variation depending on whichever species you use.
- Aviaries will have certain types of enrichment depending on the animal. Maximum of 3 different types, similar to current exhibit system.
- Animals will have a preset of looped animations they cycle through. This will be expanded upon based on whether or not the enrichment items have been added. There will be a randomized factor applied, so the actions are not circular. For instance, an animal in "Spot A" can move to "Spot B, Spot F or Spot G", instead of having to go from A->B->C->A
- There will be 5 preset biome types for aviaries (Tropical dry forest, Tropical rain forest, Temperate forest, Grassland or Taiga). These will provide an enrichment bonus to the animal when paired with the correct species (ie. great hornbill in Tropical rain forest). There will also be a "null" option for this. Either way, players will be able to add their own foliage with the axis tool for maximized customizability. Players will not be punished for not choosing the "proper" biome, they will just miss out on the extra enrichment bonus.
- Update will add 4 free aviary animals to the game (two birds, a fruit bat and the giant Indian squirrel). Will be paired along with a large dlc that adds 8-12 more aviary animals.
Exhibit System Update
Overview: Totally overhauls current exhibit system to provide more customizability
Features:
- Adds null option to exhibits, allowing players to build custom preset boxes. Basically Iben's mod, but as an actual feature.
- Allows exhibits to "snap" side by side. This means you can have to actually touching each other, without having a small awkward gap between them.
- Adds 3 different sized exhibits (small, medium and large). Large is the current size, medium is anywhere from 1/2 to 2/3 the size of large, and small is 1/5 or less. Large exhibits are used for iguanas (assuming they aren't moved into the aviary system disclosed above)l and other large lizards ( ie: skink), larger snakes and turtles. Medium is used for frogs and toads. Small is used for all insects, arthropods and arachnids.
- Current biomes are simply "Tropical Rainforest", "Desert" and "Aquatic". Update adds "Temperate Rainforest" and "Grassland" biomes for exhibit animals.
- Update adds 6 free exhibit animals (1 snake (Grassland), 1 chameleon, 2 turtles, 1 salamander (Temperate Rainforest) and one insect of some kind).
- Doesn't need to be paired with a specific dlc, unlike the above aviary pack
Animal TLC Overhaul Update
Overview: Completely updates and improves upon older models, skins and textures of previous animals. Frontier's dev team have improved their animal making skills noticeably, and it seems some animals from the base game are in slightly different art styles due to being made by different artists. This update would focus on unifying animals under one updated style.
Features:
- Update and improve models for baby animals. Some animals (ie: cheetah, jaguar, monitor) don't look anything like what an actual infant of their species looks like in real life.
- Fixes "cartoonish" aspects of some animals, most importantly the male West African lion's mane
- Adds variation to models of some animals (ie: lion's manes and even potential to be maneless, horn and antler variation in animals such as African buffalo and reindeer)
- Adds new animations and behaviors to existing animals (ie: brachiation for apes)
- New enrichment item interactions for existing animals (ie: Aardvarks and apes can use termite mounds. Apes use a stick to dig into them. Jaguar gets access to hammock)
- Increase model size for Bactrian camel and American bison, as they are far too small compared to human size in-game
- Diving requirement reduced significantly for otter and caiman
- One big final push to add diving to relevant animals (bears, tapirs, monitor, tigers and jaguar)
Overview: Similar to the above update, but for foliage. Adds many new options to the game as well as touching up some existing pieces.
Features:
- Improves some of the less quality foliage models (the fan palm from the Australia pack stands out as a big one here)
- Adds between 30-50 new foliage pieces to the game. Caveat: whatever dlc pack is paired with this update, the update will not have foliage for the region. The dlc will have it's own set of foliage to go along with it.
- Focuses on adding foliage options to underrepresented areas (ie NA and SA deserts and grasslands)
- High emphasis on adding new grasses, palms, medium sized bushes, skinny trees and dead or broken trees.
- At least 6 new aquatic plant piece options (could be 3 new plants total, 6 new plants total etc.)
- Adds at least 10-15 new faux rocks with updated textures and model variation to help improve creativity.
- Adds dirt, rock and sand textures from each biome map to either the already ingame mulch pieces OR creates a new set of items for this. This solves the problem of players wanting one type of dirt on another biome map, which we know is not possible due to the engine.
- Adds some terrain variations into maps so they aren't just flat wastelands. It doesn't even have to be incredibly detailed, just some small hills, maybe a lake or river. Something for people to play around. Would be somewhat random in seeding.
That's all I've got. Let me know what you think.
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