If you have to improve this game what will you do?
- Thread starter Orque41
- Start date
I would probably say if frontier could improve two things about this game it would be the animals. More personality per individual. And next would be animal-guest interaction. Maybe not to the point of zoo tycoon 2013 but maybe at least to the point big cats and bears interact with guests by glass viewing areas and maybe the ability to feed giraffes off high rise areas.
I’d also like to see the ability for mother big cats to carry babies by the scruff of their neck to move them once in awhile if I could choose one more.
I’d also like to see the ability for mother big cats to carry babies by the scruff of their neck to move them once in awhile if I could choose one more.
My picks:
- Ability to control temperature manually on all maps in sandbox
- Ability to use any biome brush on any map - failing that be able to switch the background/map surroundings
- Have a map with no background/map surroundings or just a very low, flat one
- Mesh panels and roof pieces at a minimum, ideally a full building set with different kinds of bars and mesh
- Pieces to fill in the gaps created by the weirdly functioning path system as I guess an overhaul of the system itself is impossible
- Ability to have normal coloured staff paths
- Autumn and winter versions of trees so we can create a real-time four seasons zoo
I'd love to see better 3D animal pathing. Some of the climbing and swimming things to allow more interesting things with trees and more.
Behavior shifting for animals, perhaps having potential animations and "preferences" for different species that can be randomly possible per animal to add variety to them. Something like X individual prefers this toy a bit more and gets slightly more out of it while Y individual prefers that other toy. One might prefer to spend more time in the water and other sleep a bit more...a lot of things randomly determined (even with something like an internal checklist) that aren't genetics connected.
Some more special skin possibilities. Something like melanistic versions along with some others such as the King Cheetah rather than just the albinos having special looks.
Perhaps shifting things around slightly with facility shells. I've had some issues with getting things positioned properly inside of them, and rather than fiddling around with them, having them more easily lock in place would be nice.
"Glass" Paths/Platforms to let you look down from bridges and such.
Tube "Paths/Tunnels" are something I've seen in a lot of zoos and aquariums, mainly aimed at something for kids where they can crawl in and pop up to look from positions inside exhibits and animal head height.
A kids "play area" group of things, letting things be set up for kids with it, potentially adding education options for them depending upon how it's done (Several zoos have things set up to let kids learn via play on things that are based on the animals or other themes in areas.
Shows would be a nice thing, perhaps have an "entertainer" staff member who could be assigned to a stage with things and tie some animals to it. A lot of zoos have shows with various animals to help teach visitors.
Tour Guides/Educators would also be nice...perhaps an option for assigning them to vehicles for rides in order to up education from them since the boards aren't there. Possibly also giving them paths to lead groups of visitors around, helping push them into other parts of the zoos.
Behavior shifting for animals, perhaps having potential animations and "preferences" for different species that can be randomly possible per animal to add variety to them. Something like X individual prefers this toy a bit more and gets slightly more out of it while Y individual prefers that other toy. One might prefer to spend more time in the water and other sleep a bit more...a lot of things randomly determined (even with something like an internal checklist) that aren't genetics connected.
Some more special skin possibilities. Something like melanistic versions along with some others such as the King Cheetah rather than just the albinos having special looks.
Perhaps shifting things around slightly with facility shells. I've had some issues with getting things positioned properly inside of them, and rather than fiddling around with them, having them more easily lock in place would be nice.
"Glass" Paths/Platforms to let you look down from bridges and such.
Tube "Paths/Tunnels" are something I've seen in a lot of zoos and aquariums, mainly aimed at something for kids where they can crawl in and pop up to look from positions inside exhibits and animal head height.
A kids "play area" group of things, letting things be set up for kids with it, potentially adding education options for them depending upon how it's done (Several zoos have things set up to let kids learn via play on things that are based on the animals or other themes in areas.
Shows would be a nice thing, perhaps have an "entertainer" staff member who could be assigned to a stage with things and tie some animals to it. A lot of zoos have shows with various animals to help teach visitors.
Tour Guides/Educators would also be nice...perhaps an option for assigning them to vehicles for rides in order to up education from them since the boards aren't there. Possibly also giving them paths to lead groups of visitors around, helping push them into other parts of the zoos.
Last edited:
- Most realistic behavior for animals, from the way the walk/run to the way they interact with each other.
- Realistic behavior for mothers and babies of all species.
- Eggs for birds and reptiles.
- Better climbing dynamics.
- All plants moving (only trees and grass move like there's wind).
- Swimming and flying animals.
- Smaller plants/items for more detailed zoos.
- Smarter guests
- More ways to entertain guests
- Wider draw distance on high settings in order to have better graphics.
- Add different personaility to the animals. Some individuals getting stressed more often, some less, some function in bigger gropus, some don't, some get bullied a lot (more fights), some are calmer and can reduce fighting in a herd etc. Just take the basic behaviour now and link the chance of happening to the individual.Which would lead to:
- Make animal management more meaningful.
- Add more interspecies interactions, especially between apes and monkey
- Improve mother - offspring behaviour. Offspring should be closer to mother, especially when really young.
- Offer more animals per species in sandbox, including very good ones and albinos (yes, it's still too little)
- Turn off "all things researched" in sandbox, giving the option to make research complete only for animals, illnesses and / or building pieces. Let me create my own challenge
- Add semi-aquatic or coastal animals.
- Add smaller species like wildcats, otters etc.
- Make DLCs bigger
- Reduce the guest need for drinking and eating A LOT
- Reduce littering A LOT
- Make communication with the community more meaningful. Less quoted animal facts on social media, more profile in the forums. Discuss ideas with people, tell us upfront which bugs are currently worked on (happened a bit lately with Chantés post), give a rough road map, manage expectations. There won't be a anniversary update because of covid delays? Tell us up front, don't let speculation run wild.
Bold one currently my most important one. BeyondDrewTV described the communication and advertising as robotic and I agree. Read the room Frontier. People are discussiong about resizing objects and what PZ is currently missing, people say they want to move over to Pre-Historic Kingdom once released and Frontier posts a broing animal fact. Just, for christ sake, fight a bit for your player base and get moving again! Fast. Frontier is thankfully yet far away from being EA, but they are currently walking on the same road and I just don't want that for my favourite game and my favourite game developer.
Last edited:
Love all of these! I seconed!
Agree - great suggestions - Frontier's communication thing has really annoyed me this year.
- Add different personaility to the animals. Some individuals getting stressed more often, some less, some function in bigger gropus, some don't, some get bullied a lot (more fights), some are calmer and can reduce fighting in a herd etc. Just take the basic behaviour now and link the chance of happening to the individual.Which would lead to:
- Make animal management more meaningful.
- Add more interspecies interactions, especially between apes and monkey
- Improve mother - offspring behaviour. Offspring should be closer to mother, especially when really young.
- Offer more animals per species in sandbox, including very good ones and albinos (yes, it's still too little)
- Turn off "all things researched" in sandbox, giving the option to make research complete only for animals, illnesses and / or building pieces. Let me create my own challenge
- Add semi-aquatic or coastal animals.
- Add smaller species like wildcats, otters etc.
- Make DLCs bigger
- Reduce the guest need for drinking and eating A LOT
- Reduce littering A LOT
- Make communication with the community more meaningful. Less quoted animal facts on social media, more profile in the forums. Discuss ideas with people, tell us upfront which bugs are currently worked on (happened a bit lately with Chantés post), give a rough road map, manage expectations. There won't be a anniversary update because of covid delays? Tell us up front, don't let speculation run wild.
Bold one currently my most important one. BeyondDrewTV described the communication and advertising as robotic and I agree. Read the room Frontier. People are discussiong about resizing objects and what PZ is currently missing, people say they want to move over to Pre-Historic Kingdom once released and Frontier posts a broing animal fact. Just, for christ sake, fight a bit for your player base and get moving again! Fast. Frontier is thankfully yet far away from being EA, but they are currently walking on the same road and I just don't want that for my favourite game and my favourite game developer.
Also would love - the cable car gondola with cable - like Planco's closed cable car gondolas - For weather extremes - and a boat like river safari Singapore, with drops - also new designed and interchangeable ride vehicles for in game rides - like new steam train with Jackson Sharp open excursion cars and wild west steam engine - Planet Zoo version - the Devs make excellent aesthetic designs with rides.
If the rides were themed to a DLC - like the Steam Train at Disney's Animal Kingdom - it could be used and look better for African themed areas and perhaps a version for India too - with luggage all over the roof of the vehicles - just more choice would be great.
Would love entertainers and viewing points - and perhaps group tour guides - people who take up charged groups through exhibits or backstage tours - perhaps a guest could want/need more education, they could buy a ticket at the info and then can be taken backstage for the ultimate guest experience - would add a real spark to the game and backstage areas would be amazing to create - even if they had new designed buildings with guest viewing and interactions and guest tour paths. This could be a great challenge mode spin off. Build the ultimate backstage tour and have guest % need for information like the animal enrichment items for the animals.
And restaurants with actual tables and buffets and things where guests can pick, choose a table and sit and eat. Like the staff facility buildings but restaurants - detailed and maybe adaptable - or grow-able for the theme you want - would be great. One can only dream . . .
Impossible. Once you do this, every single person will expect his questions to be answered and his ideas to be discussed, and seeing there are hundreds of requests they will never be able to do that in a way that is satisfying for the forum users.
They aren't telling us anything, so how can speculation run wild?
It's not Frontier's problem that people's expectations run wild, just because they want something in the game.
I agree with the bug's part. That needs more communication. I don't agree with the roadmaps, because with the way users are here on the forum, there is no way to manage that.
Communication here is the same as it always has been for Planet Coaster for example.
And most DLC's where composed of stuff people on the forum requested.
People should just continue requesting things, and in the end hope their wishes are granted, but never expect them to do so.
Nothing new we disagree on the roadmap part
Was always that way, will always be that way, neither of us will ever change their opinion on this and we don't need to. I get your points, I just see the community differently and would approach discussions differently if I were them. But "It has been like that with Planet Coaster" is no argument for me, really. If something needs improvment (and in my opinion it does, in your opinion it does not, besides the bug part), "it has always been that way" won't change anything.I was refering to the communication part, as you were saying "Communication here is the same as it always has been for Planet Coaster for example. " But maybe you meant it as in "in the end everything will be fine" and not as in "never change a running system". I read it as the later and in that case I wouldn't agree. If you meant, that everything will be fine regardless, well, you know me well enough by now to know that I'm the first to throw praise at Frontier whenever they knock it out of the park with a free update again.I never said the game or a portion of the game doesn't need improvement.
I have a smaller time frame of expierience with them and I noticed a change in communication that worries me, so I share it. I don't know how it has been with Planco (though friends of mine indeed say it was different and more upfront and down to earth), but I can only speak for the PZ lifespan.
-Make it so in Sandbox, you can set how challenging/sparse the animal market is. In challenge mode, you often have to wait and keep a sharp eye out for whatever species you're looking for. This makes it more exciting and rewarding when you finally find the perfect specimen! But I'd like to have this challenge in sandbox too, so I can enjoy this challenge without having to research everything. In Sandbox, you don't have to do research, but the animal market challenge is also gone (always super full of animals from all species) and this is a shame. Let us change that!
-Improve animal behavior and player immersion by having the animals look at things that pass them by, especially other animals. It would make a WORLD of difference if the animals just occasionally stared off at things that catch their eye, ears perked up, nose sniffing subtly, and blinking softly a couple times. Mammals do this all the time in real life; horses, dogs, giraffes, big cats, you name it! Little things like this would make the animals feel less robotic. It could be activated sometimes when another animal walks by in the distance, or when new visitors approach the habitat... stuff like that.
Now that I think of it, this thread seems like it's more suited for the Suggestions page. I added two threads, here and here, that continue this. Come add your own ideas if you want!
-Improve animal behavior and player immersion by having the animals look at things that pass them by, especially other animals. It would make a WORLD of difference if the animals just occasionally stared off at things that catch their eye, ears perked up, nose sniffing subtly, and blinking softly a couple times. Mammals do this all the time in real life; horses, dogs, giraffes, big cats, you name it! Little things like this would make the animals feel less robotic. It could be activated sometimes when another animal walks by in the distance, or when new visitors approach the habitat... stuff like that.
Now that I think of it, this thread seems like it's more suited for the Suggestions page. I added two threads, here and here, that continue this. Come add your own ideas if you want!
Last edited:
I have the opposite feeling
Yes, every species is always available, but if you keep an eye out for genetic for breeding, you always go one step forward and two backwards, because there are not enough good animals. I currently only look at size (as the small animals just look ridicolous sometimes), and that alone is a challenge.I agree though, options on how challenging the marketis in sandbox mode would be awesome! I just wish I could set my own rules more in sandbox mode. Though, to be fair, Frontier already gave us a generous update on sandbox at the beginning of PZ lifespan. But after a year, I guess it's not too greedy to ask for another one.
YES! Having animals staring or sniffing at objects or animals would already make a big difference!
- Personalities & Traits: Animals have personality types and as well as that, traits (akin to Crusader Kings 3) that make them more unique, with some being congenital and some temporary and even some harsh ones (possible inbreeding penalties). Trait icons = easier & quicker to read than lists of data and percentages. An example: Brave trait, makes an animal less prone to stress and slightly more likely to win in fights for alpha status.
- Group Behaviours: So far I've only ever seen 1-2-1 interactions between animals. I'd like to see wolves all howling together. Herding (including running together). Grooming with apes. Animals responding to different species they share a habitat with, even if that interaction is subtle.
- Carpets of Snow: If a habitat has coolers that keep an area below 0, if it snows I think the snow on top of foliage, rocks and items should stay there unless the temperature changes.
- Guests Gain Temperature Buffs: If guests are not going to dress appropriately for the biome they're visiting, I would like to see them gain a buff from visiting shaded areas or drinking a hot drink, that will start a timer and allow them to travel through the zoo in greater comfort. Having a Streetfox Coffee stall in the Tundra would make more sense than Cosmic Cow Ice Cream/milkshakes.
- Guests seek the best views not the first available view.
- Zoo Presenters: Act as keepers in some respects, they home in on player defined areas or objects within a habitat, to give talks to onlooking guests about the animals within the habitat. They could feed them during this (Maybe placing a watermelon into a hippo's mouth from a platform or throwing a fish in the air to be caught before it lands...Throwing meat into the snapping jaws of a croc etc). Provides extra education to guests / a bit of enrichment for animals. Could also help to demonstrate animal behaviours you wouldn't normally see...I'm thinking of how shoebills and keepers in zoos IRL bow to each other etc... (P.S. Add shoebills!)
- Scenario Editor/Creator.
- Heat haze/ shimmer for hotter climates.
- Algae filmed water.
- More animals in DLC packs.