Hippos appear to swim underwater
- Thread starter paul78
- Start date
They don't, technically. They paddle and sink - it's the same animation as swimming on the surface, until they reach the bottom.
I've noticed both.
As an example, imagine the crocodiles/gharial on the surface and the way they move across the water. Now picture them sinking with that same animation, then changing to their walking animation on the bottom. That's what I've observed with the hippos.
That said, given that the crocs/gharials don't interact with an underwater environment, I kind of wish the hippos didn't either. It's cool making udnerwater viewing areas but the majority of the zoos don't actually do it for hippos, as they spend a lot of time on the surface, too (I know some zoos do, so nobody need bombard me with images of "real life examples", I'm saying that most zoos don't).
For me it's zero-sum. Either all or nothing. I think Frontier's next big step with PZ ought to be making the other aquatic/semi-aquatic animals behave properly underwater, even if that doesn't necessarily mean adding new aquatic animals. I'd love underwater viewing windows for bears, tigers, elephants, hippos, and crocodilia to actually mean something.
I think it would be great to have a few more swimming actions. Walking on the bottom for Hippo's is a good one. The swimming animations as they are are really great of course. Some animals like to dive though. Tigers are a good example of this. Others like to lay on their back and float through their days but we don't have Otters in the game right now lols.
Not sure if anyone saw this footage last week of the hippo in the Cincinnati zoo (it was on the Weather Channel). The hippo was diving down spring boarding off the bottom and flying up out of the water, almost like a breaching whale, over and over again. It was a great sight. Would love to see something that crazy in the game (I know it won't, but it really showed how fast and agile these great animals are in the water)
Update - found the footage
www.dailymail.co.uk
Update - found the footage
Moment three-year-old baby hippo Fiona jumps up and down at zoo
The hilarious footage shows the young hippo breaching the water before running around the side to have another go at Cincinnati zoo, Ohio. Keepers were worried for Fiona when she was born.
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I don't remember where exactly but I was at a zoo once that had some sort of crocodile with an underwater window (might have been a caiman, even), and the crocodile was doing that neat thing crocodiles do where their body is entirely submerged with their feet planted on the bottom, and only their head is visible at the top. It was a great view of the animal and provided an awesome sense of scale - we really do need more aquatic behaviour in this game, I think. The ability to create shallower water more easily would also be useful - at the moment it's really tricky to get the water to a level that works.
I've seen a caiman do that at my local aquarium. I have a really good picture I took of it too, but it isn't on this computer. If I get it loaded on here I'll try to post it.
^^ One of the other things Crocs do is grab the prey and spin around thus ripping of a limb, Pretty hard to change the feeding mechanics or each animal type I should think but the swimming actions seems like a popular desire.
Partly on topic......
I've seen somewhere that our animals are able to leap from climbable objects into the water but I've never seen this happen? What's the exact score with that?
Partly on topic......
I've seen somewhere that our animals are able to leap from climbable objects into the water but I've never seen this happen? What's the exact score with that?