OK, this is a long one, but I feel I have to say it.
Planet Zoo seems like it’s panning out to be an amazing game, but one thing has really disappointed me since its reveal, the terrariums/exhibits (I’ll refer to them as terrariums, because an ‘exhibit’ can be any animal display in a zoo, not just terrariums) Here’s the problems I have with the terrariums, with a proposed solution after to make the terrariums more creatively freeing:
1) No Customisation
There are only a few designs of terrarium, which I’m sure will become stale very quickly. If you’re building a reptile house then I highly doubt you’d want to see the same exhibit design over and over again. In real zoos, the terrarium designs often differ from each other, with some being bigger or smaller, with different themes between them. Even if Frontier adds more terrarium designs I don’t think it will take long before people get tired of those designs as well. I do understand there is some customisability in that you can change the lamp or rock, but overall the exhibit remains unchanged and won’t be too different from the other terrariums. The terrariums seem to really just be a page taken from Zoo Tycoon 2013, with exhibits looking the same, little customisation and little creative freedom. This really contrasts to the rest of the game which is immensely creativity and customisation based.
2) Way Big
Other problems I have with the terrariums are that some of them are unreasonably big for their animals. That immense space of the terrarium is more than what any zoo would give small animals like spiders or poison dart frogs.
3) Static
The animals in the terrarium don’t actively move around. They just sit around and only move to another spot when you aren’t looking. I would have thought that Frontier would’ve had them animated in a loop to move around (like in ZT 2013) since they are in a fixed environment. Personally this doesn’t bother me so much and you’ll see me mention in my solution to make terrariums more customisable.
I’m not only going to moan about the problems, but I think I have a potential solution to make terrariums match the customisation and creative freedom of the rest of the game:
I think instead of giving us the full terrarium, just give us the platform the animals sit on (the rocks, branches, ground piece or even glass panels). With the platforms we can place them where we want and then build around them to make our own exhibit/terrarium. We should be able to link multiple platforms together which together will be seen as one habitat. The animals can then ‘teleport’ between the platforms in their exhibit when the player is not looking, like they already do in their current terrarium setup. By only having the platform, players can then go in and build around the platform to make their own custom terrariums with unique shapes and designs. This solution makes it so that terrariums match the creative freedom of the rest of the game and means that developers won’t have to develop a movement system with the small animals but just have the ‘teleportation’ mechanism that’s already in place.
I’m not knowledgeable with game design, but I feel like it’s an idea that could and should be implemented.
Sorry for the long read, I just feel this could be a proper feature in the game.
I've included I diagram to better show this
Planet Zoo seems like it’s panning out to be an amazing game, but one thing has really disappointed me since its reveal, the terrariums/exhibits (I’ll refer to them as terrariums, because an ‘exhibit’ can be any animal display in a zoo, not just terrariums) Here’s the problems I have with the terrariums, with a proposed solution after to make the terrariums more creatively freeing:
1) No Customisation
There are only a few designs of terrarium, which I’m sure will become stale very quickly. If you’re building a reptile house then I highly doubt you’d want to see the same exhibit design over and over again. In real zoos, the terrarium designs often differ from each other, with some being bigger or smaller, with different themes between them. Even if Frontier adds more terrarium designs I don’t think it will take long before people get tired of those designs as well. I do understand there is some customisability in that you can change the lamp or rock, but overall the exhibit remains unchanged and won’t be too different from the other terrariums. The terrariums seem to really just be a page taken from Zoo Tycoon 2013, with exhibits looking the same, little customisation and little creative freedom. This really contrasts to the rest of the game which is immensely creativity and customisation based.
2) Way Big
Other problems I have with the terrariums are that some of them are unreasonably big for their animals. That immense space of the terrarium is more than what any zoo would give small animals like spiders or poison dart frogs.
3) Static
The animals in the terrarium don’t actively move around. They just sit around and only move to another spot when you aren’t looking. I would have thought that Frontier would’ve had them animated in a loop to move around (like in ZT 2013) since they are in a fixed environment. Personally this doesn’t bother me so much and you’ll see me mention in my solution to make terrariums more customisable.
I’m not only going to moan about the problems, but I think I have a potential solution to make terrariums match the customisation and creative freedom of the rest of the game:
I think instead of giving us the full terrarium, just give us the platform the animals sit on (the rocks, branches, ground piece or even glass panels). With the platforms we can place them where we want and then build around them to make our own exhibit/terrarium. We should be able to link multiple platforms together which together will be seen as one habitat. The animals can then ‘teleport’ between the platforms in their exhibit when the player is not looking, like they already do in their current terrarium setup. By only having the platform, players can then go in and build around the platform to make their own custom terrariums with unique shapes and designs. This solution makes it so that terrariums match the creative freedom of the rest of the game and means that developers won’t have to develop a movement system with the small animals but just have the ‘teleportation’ mechanism that’s already in place.
I’m not knowledgeable with game design, but I feel like it’s an idea that could and should be implemented.
Sorry for the long read, I just feel this could be a proper feature in the game.
I've included I diagram to better show this