Help for a possible zoo recreation without mods or other extensions
- Thread starter Orkan
- Start date
Yes of course it should be possible if you dont mind replacing unavailable animals with similar animals in game. I hope by not wanting extensions you are not meaning you dont want to buy dlc packs. I recommend having most if not all dlc if you can before any recreation is undertaken ( or at least ones suitable for the animal collection). Pretty much most of my completed recreation zoos (jacksonville, oregon, woodland park, and san diego) have used almost all dlc available.
Using the zoo website (i cant say if this is correct of course) i can go through the list of suitable ingame species and note what you could do with a base game or dlc enhanced game. Following my methods for recreation zoos the animal collection can be made close enough to reality:
If this is a serious project where you understand the scale and difficulty of a real zoo recreation, i can gladly help out with any questions since i have years of experience tackling large scale zoo recreations. Using just the base game with no dlc is undoubtly a 'no' answer, there are many key species from australia, south america, north america and europe which have little to no representation in the base game.
In regard to mods though, i dont really feel the need to mod my zoos with the correct species until the zoo itself is done and uploaded on the workshop. I then install the mods and change it up for a true real to life experience for those who want to download 20-30 species mods. Right enough, my mod zoo files only ever 25 percent of users compared to my main zoo file which requires no external downloads. Mods can easily break the game and save files if you dont know what you are doing when installing them which is why most people stay well away from them.
Using the zoo website (i cant say if this is correct of course) i can go through the list of suitable ingame species and note what you could do with a base game or dlc enhanced game. Following my methods for recreation zoos the animal collection can be made close enough to reality:
- African Lion - West african lion (base game)
- African Spurred tortoise - aldabra tortoise (base game)
- American black welsh mountain sheep - dall sheep (arctic dlc) or alpine ibex (europe dlc)
- Bactarian Camel - Bactarian Camel (base game)
- Bairds tapir - bairds tapir (base game)
- Black tailed prarie dog - black tailed prarie dog (north america dlc)
- Cape Porcupine - African crested porcupine (arid dlc)
- Cotton top tamarin - capuchin monkey (south america dlc)
- De brazzas monkey - female mandrill (base game) or red ruffed lemur (base game)
- Dexter cow - Female Wild water buffalo (wetlands dlc)
- Emu - emu (grasslands dlc)
- Giant anteater - Giant anteater (south america dlc)
- Grevys zebra - plains zebra (base game)
- Guinea hog - babirusa (southeast asia dlc) or red river hog (tropical dlc)
- Hartmanns mountain zebra - Plains zebra (base game)
- Hooded crane - red crowned crane (wetlands dlc)
- Indian blue peafowl - Indian peafowl (base game)
- two toed sloth - three toed sloth (tropical dlc)
- Lowland Nyala - Nyala (base game)
- Masai Giraffe - Reticulated Giraffe (base game)
- Morgan Horse - przewalski's horse (conservation dlc)
- Nigerian dwarf goat - female alpine ibex (europe dlc)
- Ocelot - Clouded leopard (southeast asia dlc)
- Ostrich - Ostrich (base game)
- Poitou Donkey - somali wild ass (arid dlc)
- Pygmy Hippo - Pygmy hippo (deluxe dlc)
- Red Kangaroo - Red kangaroo (Australia dlc)
- Red Panda - Red panda (base game)
- Red River Hog - Red river hog (tropical dlc)
- Red necked wallaby - red necked wallaby (grasslands dlc)
- Reeves Muntjac - Female fallow deer? (europe dlc) or any smaller african antelope from the base game. Difficult one
- Ring tailed lemur - ring tailed lemur (base game)
- Fruit bat - fruit bat (twilight dlc)
- Dwarf donkey - somali wild ass (arid dlc)
- Somali wild ass - somali wild ass (arid dlc)
- Spotted hyena - spotted hyena (base game)
- Warthog - Warthog (base game)
- african dwarf crocodile - Spectatled caiman (wetlands dlc) or dwarf caiman (aquatic dlc)
- grey kangaroo - red kangaroo (australia dlc)
- lowland gorilla - gorilla (base game)
- White bearded wildebeest - blue wildebeest (grassland dlc)
- White naped crane - red crowned crane (wetlands dlc)
If this is a serious project where you understand the scale and difficulty of a real zoo recreation, i can gladly help out with any questions since i have years of experience tackling large scale zoo recreations. Using just the base game with no dlc is undoubtly a 'no' answer, there are many key species from australia, south america, north america and europe which have little to no representation in the base game.
In regard to mods though, i dont really feel the need to mod my zoos with the correct species until the zoo itself is done and uploaded on the workshop. I then install the mods and change it up for a true real to life experience for those who want to download 20-30 species mods. Right enough, my mod zoo files only ever 25 percent of users compared to my main zoo file which requires no external downloads. Mods can easily break the game and save files if you dont know what you are doing when installing them which is why most people stay well away from them.
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Thank you so much! I didn’t think anyone would respond as soon as you did! This is so helpful.
For the muntjac I could just leave it out as in the zoo they are in the same habitat as the red pandas. I do have all the current DLCs too so that shouldn’t be too much of a problem.
I have been to this zoo at least ten times in my life. Probably more. It has a fairly flat section in the middle and some hills up by the big cats. How should I do the terrain? Do you know of any ways to find the exact heights of the hills and grades and stuff?
I'm honestly not sure it's possible with just base game animals. Oh sure, you have all of what I loosely call, at least IMO, the big 10 (Elephant, Giraffe, Rhino, Hippo, Lion, Tiger, Zebra, Giant Panda, Chimpanzee and Gorilla) but there's just so much missing that has since been added. Just looking at base game here's some highlights I think are missing that you can now have otherwise.
Not taking exhibit animals into account here - base game Oceania - 1 animal; Base game South America - 2 animals; so if you're aiming to even include either of those sections, you won't be able to recreate what you're looking for. North America's a little better off, but not much, with only 4 species.
Highly iconic animal species, that don't fall into the my "big 10" Meerkats, Emu, Wallaby, Capybara, Jaguar, African Rhino, Penguins, Polar Bear, Kangaroo, Reindeer, a true Leopard, Gibbons, Przwalski's Horse, Ibex, Moose, Cougar...and I could go on and on but won't.
Zero marsupials, rodents, mustelids, deer and others I could probably point out but that's what there's none of as far as animal families go.
Very few smaller habitat animals, as the base game focused mainly on larger animals. Which isn't to say there's no smaller animals of course, but it's definitely not a priority and the DLCS have helped out greatly with this. On the opposite of this, I really do give Frontier credit for introducing many small animals with the exhibits, but it's just not fair to compare those to smaller habitat animals. The Lemurs, Pangolin, Tortoises and Red Pandas are what come to mind, though I'm sure there's some I'm just not thinking of right off the bat.
For me, all the above just equates to not really making any kind of zoo besides very basic and bare bones. It didn't feel that way at launch, but looking back at it, and how far we've come, it's harder to thinking about just having the base game animals. Where we are now, mammalwise is amazing - hard to believe the biggest mammal wants are new World Monkeys, the Tasmanian Devil and the Wolverine, the last two of which I definitely do not consider necessary for basic zoos.
Talking about recreating zoos and having good representation in zoos compared to real life still isn't possible because we don't have Macaws, Eagles, Toucans and other similar sized birds that could fly, but all of the above centers around mammal representation. Planet Zoo's roster is at its core mammal focused, and while I don't have a problem with that since that's how it often is in real life zoos, it's still missing out on the Avian family.
Not taking exhibit animals into account here - base game Oceania - 1 animal; Base game South America - 2 animals; so if you're aiming to even include either of those sections, you won't be able to recreate what you're looking for. North America's a little better off, but not much, with only 4 species.
Highly iconic animal species, that don't fall into the my "big 10" Meerkats, Emu, Wallaby, Capybara, Jaguar, African Rhino, Penguins, Polar Bear, Kangaroo, Reindeer, a true Leopard, Gibbons, Przwalski's Horse, Ibex, Moose, Cougar...and I could go on and on but won't.
Zero marsupials, rodents, mustelids, deer and others I could probably point out but that's what there's none of as far as animal families go.
Very few smaller habitat animals, as the base game focused mainly on larger animals. Which isn't to say there's no smaller animals of course, but it's definitely not a priority and the DLCS have helped out greatly with this. On the opposite of this, I really do give Frontier credit for introducing many small animals with the exhibits, but it's just not fair to compare those to smaller habitat animals. The Lemurs, Pangolin, Tortoises and Red Pandas are what come to mind, though I'm sure there's some I'm just not thinking of right off the bat.
For me, all the above just equates to not really making any kind of zoo besides very basic and bare bones. It didn't feel that way at launch, but looking back at it, and how far we've come, it's harder to thinking about just having the base game animals. Where we are now, mammalwise is amazing - hard to believe the biggest mammal wants are new World Monkeys, the Tasmanian Devil and the Wolverine, the last two of which I definitely do not consider necessary for basic zoos.
Talking about recreating zoos and having good representation in zoos compared to real life still isn't possible because we don't have Macaws, Eagles, Toucans and other similar sized birds that could fly, but all of the above centers around mammal representation. Planet Zoo's roster is at its core mammal focused, and while I don't have a problem with that since that's how it often is in real life zoos, it's still missing out on the Avian family.
I am doing this with DLCs. However it would be way cooler if we had birds. At Franklin Park they have a huge Andean condor aviary that legit looks like something out of jurassic park and an entire bird themed building with cool Asian architecture.
Ah, okay. Your first post said base game and without any extensions so I assumed you meant actual base game at the initial release time.
I'd go with what @Captain Callum said then, as far as substituting some species out for others - good example for recreating my local zoo I'd have to use the Reticulated Giraffe and Crested Porcupine for the Masai and Cape Porcupine.
I think we are in a really really good place with mammals, to the point that what's topping the list were definitely considered more niche requests three and a half years ago. They don't seem like it now, and they do bring unique things to the zoo both taxonomically and appearance-wise, but to call them basic zoo animals would be stretching it - aside from New World monkeys as we definitely need more than just one of those, like at minimum 3 more.
So yeah, with DLC I think it's nearly entirely possible to do what you're looking to do, at least for the mammals. the New World Monkeys would really fill that to make it entirely possible.
Thats great then, the animals available to you should be no problem.
Did someone ask for terrain help?. I hate myself for this but yeah! terrain work is something i know quite well when applying it to real life recreations even though the pain is too much. My current san diego zoo recreation is literally nothing but canyons with huge gradient slopes, its steep in real life but translating that to planet zoo can be quite the challenge. Keep in mind that terrain work is confusing but ill try to explain as simple as i can.
- Start off with plotting the real life elevation and write it down or even write on top of the zoo map. You want to use this handy tool for finding the elevation (https://www.freemaptools.com/elevation-finder.htm). Turn on satellite and labels in the settings and then search for your zoo in the search bar below the map. Then you want to click areas of the zoo to get the elevation, write these down because then you have a entire map of elevations to base yourself on.
- Whatever the elevation of the parking lot or entrance is, these are most likely flat enough to base yourself here. What i mean by base yourself is the planet zoo map height - the flat map height. I can roughly see the base height of the franklin park zoo is 44 metres (lets work in metres here because thats what the game uses).
- I am seeing a height range from 40 metres to 50 metres , a range of 10 metres with our game map sitting at 44 metres. So what does that mean? If the game map height is 44 metres and we want a lower elevation of 40 metres, well simply get a 4 metre construction piece, angle it down and dig until you reach the bottom of the construction piece because its 4 metres down. Likewise 44 metres up to 50 metres needs to go up 6 metres.
- For slopes,you need to note how long and steep the gradient is by personal experience or photo references. Its pretty much impossible to measure how steep a path is from online tools. Like i use google maps streetview and youtube walking tours to help me judge the correct slope/gradients. Its very much trial and error where you try to connect a path at the bottom/top of the slope to the one at the bottom - sometimes if its a really long path you need to manually dig a slope which is really difficult work.
This was the part of the project I have been dreading. First of all, math is not my strong suit and second, there are a good amount of hills in this zoo. It is mainly flat in the part called ‘The Greeting’ which is a remnant of what used to be back in the zoos ‘golden age’ in the 60s and 70s. Thankfully the Greeting takes up a good amount of the space. However, the area by the big cats and camels is definitely the exact opposite. There are so many hills that I don’t even know how to do it. There is also the tropical building which isn’t a hill, but a big dome like structure which will definitely be a challenge to build.
Pretty much everyone who tries to build a recreation zoo tries to plan it all at once and overthink it. I know it sounds counterintuitive but plan a zoo recreation step by step focusing on getting one area right then moving on. The most important part is getting the elevation measurements right (you don't need to be good at math for this) and getting the real life scale of the zoo correct. I advise you to treat this is a learning exercise because building a recreation is is both brutal (it tests every single planet zoo skillset you have) and also improves your skills by miles once you break that brickwall.
How would I approach a hilly section of a zoo? One hill at a time - have your path at the top/bottom of a hill, then place a path at the bottom then connect them both using a long path. If the path is too steep or oddly angled, use the align to gradient tool to get the perfect gradient, practise makes perfect for landscaping like this.
Update:
Sorry I haven’t gotten back to anyone yet, I was busy with real-world stuff. Anyways, back to the project at hand.
After some height mapping and walkthrough watching, apparently my mind was dramatizing the hills. There are hills, but far lower than I had previously thought. According to the website, they’re only about six feet higher than the rest of the zoo.
What could be a slight problem however is the area by the Condor aviary. It’s basically a big drop off to the parking lot for the secondary entrance. I could just not build past the zoo or I could lift the whole map up.
I havent started the actual zoo yet, just research as of now.
Sorry I haven’t gotten back to anyone yet, I was busy with real-world stuff. Anyways, back to the project at hand.
After some height mapping and walkthrough watching, apparently my mind was dramatizing the hills. There are hills, but far lower than I had previously thought. According to the website, they’re only about six feet higher than the rest of the zoo.
What could be a slight problem however is the area by the Condor aviary. It’s basically a big drop off to the parking lot for the secondary entrance. I could just not build past the zoo or I could lift the whole map up.
I havent started the actual zoo yet, just research as of now.
6ft higher? Yeah that's a little easier, you were making it sound like the zoo was nothing but hills. Regarding the condor aviary, it looks more or less flat on Google maps, I'm seeing like concrete walls of such with terrain slightly sloping down, unless the second entrance is vastly lower than the rest of the zoo , this shouldn't be a cause for concern.
The hills seem higher in real life because the slopes are very gradual which might be an issue. I have a terrible habit of making flat zoos, so I haven’t used the terrain editor too much. Also I meant 6 meters, stupid American here lol.
Heres what 6 metres looks like then, not too bad overall but enough to give a challenge for a flat zoo builder. I guess it seems easy to me since my san diego build goes down 20 metres deep. Never too late to learn the terrain editor of course, you can even experiment making gradual slopes in an empty sandbox map if this all seems too daunting.
Okay now there’s the problem of scale.
Ive seen on almost every planet zoo recreation tutorial a mod that lets you overlay the zoo map in the game.
Now I’m not using mods, so how do I do this?
Oh I never bother with that, I only noticed this whole overlay system by the time I completed my third recreation zoo
All these big-name youtubers who knew the recreation stuff all the way back in 2020 went completely unnoticed by me until last year. I build 'freehand' as they say, eyeball it and curse at your computer when you get the scale wrong half way through the zoo build.But actually how do I get the scale right? Parking lots are my answer, measure and build correctly everything but most importantly correctly sized parking lots then you get a great sense of scale. Scaling is forever a burden on recreation zoos, using Google earth's measurement tool is the best way I have found. You could use the whole wooden grid overlay but you need to know the exact same and grid size of the zoo you are building, the guide on YouTube seems awfully complicated to figure out how big is your grid for a 1:1 scale zoo.
Precisely I would start with a straight road that is roughly central to your zoo, such as a road leading to a parking lot. Get the size of the road correct such as a 8-10 metre wide road and naturally the scale follows by measuring the parking lot, the spaces and even the paths connecting the parking to the entrance.
My best advice is always get the entrance right before even thinking of building any habitats. Does the entrance feel too small or too big, it's better to restart an entrance area again rather than finding out you don't have enough room for your habitats.
One problem:Oh I never bother with that, I only noticed this whole overlay system by the time I completed my third recreation zoo
But actually how do I get the scale right? Parking lots are my answer, measure and build correctly everything but most importantly correctly sized parking lots then you get a great sense of scale. Scaling is forever a burden on recreation zoos, using Google earth's measurement tool is the best way I have found. You could use the whole wooden grid overlay but you need to know the exact same and grid size of the zoo you are building, the guide on YouTube seems awfully complicated to figure out how big is your grid for a 1:1 scale zoo.
Precisely I would start with a straight road that is roughly central to your zoo, such as a road leading to a parking lot. Get the size of the road correct such as a 8-10 metre wide road and naturally the scale follows by measuring the parking lot, the spaces and even the paths connecting the parking to the entrance.
My best advice is always get the entrance right before even thinking of building any habitats. Does the entrance feel too small or too big, it's better to restart an entrance area again rather than finding out you don't have enough room for your habitats.
Franklin Park Zoo doesn’t have a parking lot.
It’s in basically the middle of Boston and there’s just streets to park on and a circular area at the main enterance
Yeah I was half expecting that once I saw it on Google maps. After thinking of all the options you have 2 choices:
- Just make the circular area for the main entrance and ignore the main roads that connect it.
- Go for the second entrance and use the roadside parking as a guideline, an easier entrance could be more appealing but straight into sloped terrain might make it a little challenging.
Yeah I know, it's more the microphone shyness that's stopping me, I tried it once and hated talking to myself. I'll look into options to see how I could do it but no promises.
Don’t be afraid! All people at least that I know have some form of microphone shyness. Whether that be cringing at their voice in a video or straight up hating everyone has some form. what I’m trying to say is don’t shy away from it because of something you can’t change. Be confident in who you are.
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