In need of inspiration/little help

[TinnaAres]

Hey everyone! I rarely post here even though I am an active reader (I use issue tracker a lot ).
I wanted to ask everyone how do you plan your zoo - do you draw on paper, or paint or something else? I have been in a bit of a creative (and planning) slum recently.
To be honest, I always struggled with building and planning, and I also do not have experience with previous similar games, such as Planet Coaster, so I never got
that building experience that many seem to have. I try my best though! But I am just never completely satisfied. I struggle with planning around staff buildings mostly. I am
never sure or rather, have been able to make it really efficient for my staff to access other habitats after the zoo eventually expands.

This is why I am looking here for some ideas from you guys! If you have any previous layout designs or anything else that could help me (don't go out of your way though, if you don't have something done already!). I look at youtube videos of course, I watched many tutorials and most of them were very helpful. But I cannot seem to really progress from more than that. Especially after seeing some amazing zoo's like from DeLadySigner and many other creators on YT and Steam. I try to vary between how my habitats look as well, but honestly, most of the time I even struggle in creating a shop shell or a building for the staff, let a lone something in the habitat.
Would love, love to see your proudest creations as well! I cans how you what I have done so far, there is a zoo I made, inspired by Randers Regnskov (tropical zoo in Denmark) which I really like (of course I could have done many things better). I rarely take photos of my zoo really, mostly animals, so even these are a bit outdated now

 

[KönigDerKaffeebohnen]

Your zoo looks really cool, especally with the domes.

Personally im less of a planner and more of a doer, working on whatever i feel like working on.
If you also read the what did you do in planet zoo today thread, you might remember my posts about the southamerica area in my last zoo, with me replanning the whoule thing for like every day for the span of a month or something, so lets say im quite bad at sticking to plans.

The one thing i tend to do is to scroll out and look down, imagining my zoo like a simplyfied zoomap and thinking about the layouts of zoos i know and comparing, to see if things like pathflow and stuff are similar.

I also made a new thread about my new zoo about a werk ago, Tiergarten Friedrichswalde. If i may praise myself a bit, i think 3 out of 4 habitats look great, with the 4 one getting there.
The main two new things i did there was to terraform an area first, and build my zoo secound into that layout and its a ton of fun!
The other thing was giving the zoo some lore while doing some more boring tasks when building, for example having the penguin habitat newly renovated, looking more modern then the other habitats, while thouse are historic ones, in parts repurpused for new animals after been lived in by others for a long time.
It gave the zoo more charakter, some cool and more natural idears for me about how and why they look the way they do and made me allready quite attachted to it, 3 things that help me building and motivating me for the less fun and more tedious tasks like buildings.
I hope that somewhat covers the answer that your searchinf, but like my crazy art teacher alllways said, "Work at whatever your inspiration takes you. You might work a little bit here and do a detail there, but at some point you will have done that everywhere, it might take longer but every little spot will be special in the long run"

 

[TinnaAres]

Your zoo looks really cool, especally with the domes.

Personally im less of a planner and more of a doer, working on whatever i feel like working on.
If you also read the what did you do in planet zoo today thread, you might remember my posts about the southamerica area in my last zoo, with me replanning the whoule thing for like every day for the span of a month or something, so lets say im quite bad at sticking to plans.

The one thing i tend to do is to scroll out and look down, imagining my zoo like a simplyfied zoomap and thinking about the layouts of zoos i know and comparing, to see if things like pathflow and stuff are similar.

I also made a new thread about my new zoo about a werk ago, Tiergarten Friedrichswalde. If i may praise myself a bit, i think 3 out of 4 habitats look great, with the 4 one getting there.
The main two new things i did there was to terraform an area first, and build my zoo secound into that layout and its a ton of fun!
The other thing was giving the zoo some lore while doing some more boring tasks when building, for example having the penguin habitat newly renovated, looking more modern then the other habitats, while thouse are historic ones, in parts repurpused for new animals after been lived in by others for a long time.
It gave the zoo more charakter, some cool and more natural idears for me about how and why they look the way they do and made me allready quite attachted to it, 3 things that help me building and motivating me for the less fun and more tedious tasks like buildings.
I hope that somewhat covers the answer that your searchinf, but like my crazy art teacher alllways said, "Work at whatever your inspiration takes you. You might work a little bit here and do a detail there, but at some point you will have done that everywhere, it might take longer but every little spot will be special in the long run"

Thanks for your input and comment
I am glad you are able to do so much with your zoo. I will check the threads once again!
But I have a problem with visualising things in my head (for Planet Zoo), so this is the reason why I asked for more visual layouts here if people had sketches or something like that, or just some screenshots from how they plan their staff buildings and paths to make the zoo efficient I don't have a lot of experience here, hence it's taking me a while to get used to the mechanics of building, not just the buildings but habitats itself.

 

[KönigDerKaffeebohnen]

Okay then here are my focusfire top 10 wisdoms of building i learned while playing this game.

1. Beach and oak sapplings make for great temperate bushes, especally in combination wirh brumble bushes. Overall sinking trees into the ground brings some amazing "new" pieces

2. Woodenbeams, especally from the arctic pack, spice up every building, especally wooden ones. When in doubt, just add some and it will work wonders.

3. Panoramas are great and fun to build, so try to do less seperated habitats and more where you can look into the next one aswell. Also helps connecting the zoo organicly, feeling less like just a bunch of boxes

4. Bamboo! If in doubt, both bamboo pieces or the plant itself fit as decorations into many builds, especally regarding asian animals. They are also great for building fences.

5. A good fence is halfway to a nice looking habitat. The better the fence/backdrop looks, the less bad and barren does your empty habitat look. Great for simple habitats or hoofstock in psrticular.

6. Try building fences yourself, its fun and makes the habitat look more unique. Also they can easily make up for a rather plain one, like mentioned above.

7. Look at references from real zoos, be it pictures, footage or just visiting them yourself. Nothing gives better inspiration and idear then reality.

8. When placing trees in proximity from each other, do it from above. You can see where the leafs end and where a mew sappling could have had the chance to grow up into a mighty tree, casting a shadow themself.

9. Build staff accesible shelters. They are not only realustic, but also a great way to put down smaller staff facilities like keeper huts or power engines. Also helps alot to decentralise your zoo.

And lastly 10. Have fun doing what ever you do! The moment it becomes too tedious and not fun anymore, stop and either keep building somewhere else you feel more like doing or just take a break in general. The game is your fun time activity and shouldnt feel like work, aswell as if xou do it but are not feeling it, you will put a lot less love into whatever your doing, hurting the looks of your zoo in the longrun or needing you to redo it in most cases.

And these are Julians Top 10 rapidfire tips that i wish i knew when i started out building the game.
I hope they are usefull for you and maybe other people reading this because theres allways something left to learn and maybe im the one whi carries that wisdom

 

[DarthQuell]

Like König said, fences and plants.

I got a suggestion from NZFanatic about putting clusters of plants/bushes/shrubs together.

Another thing is using strips of plants (like how the bamboo or the reeds are single-file), I use these in back areas to cover fences.

Also, I tend to divide my zoos by location (Africa here, Asia there, etc.). Once I finish my section, I then decorate it with rock clusters and large bushes to block/fill relatively empty areas.

And visit the creations subforum. Many people make amazing things. My personal favorite is Port Royal Zoo by Aramar, but there are so many

 

[ElectricMonk]

I’ve got two main ways of getting started when I can’t think of anything:

1: create a landscape often, but not necessarily based on a (make sure there’re elevation changes, rivers, etc) and then design around that.

2: google ‘zoo master plan’ and steal bits / ideas from real zoos!

3: use google earth, especially to get an idea about backstage areas.

 

[Fini]

And try to find your own style and not to copy others, that's what I found very difficult at the beginning. I always had the feeling that it looks stupid, why can others do it better? Since I've accepted that I build the way I build, I've also had a lot more fun. It is ok if you copy something, for example I plan to do something with the fence König made for his anteater habitat, but in my style.

You should try to decide on a theme at the beginning. So don't start tropical with temple buildings and then finish with Scandinavian Nordic, unless you are planning a geo zoo.

Sometimes when i have a fixed idea i always have a sketchbook with me and then quickly draw something down. Often I will never build it, but the idea is still in this book.

Oh for the staff buildings, try to hide them from the view of the visitors and close the gaps between the enclosures with plants, rocks, fences and scenery.

Have a look at the "What did you do in PZ today" thread, there are lots of people with many different styles.
For inspiration "Zoo Chat" is really nice!

 

[iloveyourzoos]

I struggle with planning around staff buildings mostly.

I play in franchise mode, so I'm often putting down way more staff facilities than are needed, just so that the staff are always close by and don't have to walk very far. In some zoos, I've got all seven staff buildings and all three power/water machines next to every habitat (so they can have water, quarantine, trade center, advanced vet research, etc), as well as power and staff resting rooms near every shop area.

A trick that I use when I do this is to underground all the staff buildings and utilities, deep enough or pointing into the habitat enough that they don't impact guests (after fully decorating them), and then "building" the above ground entrance to cover the stairways and terrain cut out for the tunneling. I also use underground tunnels to connect all these staff areas, so that they don't have to fight with guests on the paths.

The result is that I can make the visible "above ground" staff buildings appear much smaller (just enough to cover the stairwell at ground level), while giving me lots of space for expending their actual facilities without having to have a huge footprint.

 

[TinnaAres]

Oh wow, so many answers and I received zero notifications, even nothing in my email

fences and plants.

I got a suggestion from NZFanatic about putting clusters of plants/bushes/shrubs together.

I already do this! I love plants (in real life as much as in games) and I enjoy making landscapes. I am terrible at planning though when it comes to buildings and making ti efficient for staff!

10. Have fun doing what ever you do!

I actually took this advice first and foremost after reading it all. I feel like I only tried to do something so out of my league currently, that I did not enjoy building anything. I cannot build like TheLadySigner or Rudi or Paul, but I don't need to in order to have fun. My biggest problem was that I though everything I did sucked

2: google ‘zoo master plan’ and steal bits / ideas from real zoos!

Will do this as well!

I always had the feeling that it looks stupid, why can others do it better?

Exactly my issue Also have hard time figuring out how to make good elevations, etc. I struggle the most with buildings. I try really, but I think I am frustrated with buidling mechanics as well haha, sometimes no matter what I do, some pieces just don't fit! But..I try to not get frustrated anymore. I try

underground all the staff buildings and utilities, deep enough or pointing into the habitat enough that they don't impact guests (after fully decorating them), and then "building" the above ground entrance to cover the stairways and terrain cut out for the tunneling. I also use underground tunnels to connect all these staff areas, so that they don't have to fight with guests on the paths.

This is of course, a great idea, I did try it before! But, I thought I sucked making it, because it was still such a long path for staff, and me connecting things to habitats looked very weird tbh. I don't think I knew how to make it nice and to connect nice Now I just make it near the habitat and build around.

Thanks everyone for the replies, and so sorry I'm late

 

[KönigDerKaffeebohnen]

I actually took this advice first and foremost after reading it all. I feel like I only tried to do something so out of my league currently, that I did not enjoy building anything. I cannot build like TheLadySigner or Rudi or Paul, but I don't need to in order to have fun. My biggest problem was that I though everything I did sucked

Honestly i get ya, but to my own surprise no. If you do your thing, have fun and play, after a while you will find your own style automaticly and after a while i promise you it will look as good. You never learn out and creativity has no limits.

Without praising myself to much, im absolutly in love with my current zoo and while it might isnt completly on their level, its still really freacking good if i might say so. And realising this made me really really happy and gave me alot of motivation to keep building and put my heart into the stuff.
When starting the game or even 100 ingame hours ago, i would never have thought i could do something like that on my own. But now i can and do, building custom signs and fences, a bit more complex buildings (still suck at making thouse), panorama and connected shots were ever i look, and im not even doing it 100% intentonally most of the time.

I absolutly love my current zoo to bits, and i bet one day you will do too. Honestly i also love my old zoo, but seeing the jump i made from my okay and good areas from their to what im building now is baffeling, especally regarding that there were only about 100 hours of playtime of a difference between my curent stuff and some things were i look at and think "oh god i need to redo this".
And its fun. Its just fun. It was fun learning the game, figuring things out one step at a time, improving at my own pace and now after im done and started something new being so proud of it that i even get called out on how good it looks regulary. Its just an amazing feeling to improve in this game and to slowly dig away the complexity, learning stuff one at a time till you can use all of it in ways you would have never expected before.

Sorry if that was cheesy, but really, just having fun in this game is the best way to improve and dont worry, one day you will look at what your doing and it will just click "wow, ive build that". If you would like, how about showing of some of the stuff in these forums? It really helped to motivate me to allways do my best and the advise and feedback you get can be very helpfull. Also i would just love to see you improve in your own way, you know?

 

[KönigDerKaffeebohnen]

Also for the flexing part, here are some habitats i have been especally pleased with. I hope you like them ^^

Spoiler

Pangolins from my old zoo. Its a small and unplanned habitat, but i just felt like building one for them that day. I personally really love the fence and the view onto the rhino house in the back, as well as the trees from the dhole habitat. Its just a very neat little habitat and i love it for it.

Closer to the actual rhino house is the outdoor habitat for one of its inhabitants, the beautiful clouded leopards. I really love how natural it looks, i think i did a good job on that + i love the house in the background, it gives the whoule thing so much more charme.

From my current zoo and one of the last habitats i finished is this shot of the kangaroo habitat. It was my first time using these and i had a blast building this park style enclosure. The thing i like most is, that with creating enough eye catching stuff, the fact that most of the habitat is empty stays hidden, giving it a lot of open space for the roos without looking unfinished or empty.

An actually quite old shot from my older zoo is this upper part of my southamerican area. The southamerican area is split into a tunnel and an above ground area, building a loop thogether. Here you can see the above part of the anteater habitat, a little shop with a smaller exhibit for birds or a sloth or something and the wonky nightmare of love that is my custom made jaguar aviary. It took 6 hours to just get the beams and mesh right, but while it was a finicky nightmare it was a lot of fun and im still kinda very proud to actually have done it that way and not choosing the easy way out.

And lastly to make it a nice 5 pictures, the thing i made today, two implied exhibits for a reticulated python and banded bullfrogs. These two were a very special challange, but a very fun one with out of the box thinking and i think that they looked really great in the end!

But thats from my side, shouldnt post to many pictures here, i allready spam them into my own thread and the what did you do in planet zoo today. But now that you have seen my flexes and your reading this, i dare you to pick up the challange and flex on me with some of the proudest works you guys have done

 

[TinnaAres]

Also for the flexing part, here are some habitats i have been especally pleased with. I hope you like them ^^

Spoiler

Pangolins from my old zoo. Its a small and unplanned habitat, but i just felt like building one for them that day. I personally really love the fence and the view onto the rhino house in the back, as well as the trees from the dhole habitat. Its just a very neat little habitat and i love it for it.
View attachment 260389

Closer to the actual rhino house is the outdoor habitat for one of its inhabitants, the beautiful clouded leopards. I really love how natural it looks, i think i did a good job on that + i love the house in the background, it gives the whoule thing so much more charme.
View attachment 260390

From my current zoo and one of the last habitats i finished is this shot of the kangaroo habitat. It was my first time using these and i had a blast building this park style enclosure. The thing i like most is, that with creating enough eye catching stuff, the fact that most of the habitat is empty stays hidden, giving it a lot of open space for the roos without looking unfinished or empty.
View attachment 260391

An actually quite old shot from my older zoo is this upper part of my southamerican area. The southamerican area is split into a tunnel and an above ground area, building a loop thogether. Here you can see the above part of the anteater habitat, a little shop with a smaller exhibit for birds or a sloth or something and the wonky nightmare of love that is my custom made jaguar aviary. It took 6 hours to just get the beams and mesh right, but while it was a finicky nightmare it was a lot of fun and im still kinda very proud to actually have done it that way and not choosing the easy way out.
View attachment 260392

And lastly to make it a nice 5 pictures, the thing i made today, two implied exhibits for a reticulated python and banded bullfrogs. These two were a very special challange, but a very fun one with out of the box thinking and i think that they looked really great in the end!
View attachment 260393

But thats from my side, shouldnt post to many pictures here, i allready spam them into my own thread and the what did you do in planet zoo today. But now that you have seen my flexes and your reading this, i dare you to pick up the challange and flex on me with some of the proudest works you guys have done

Sorry for a late reply, I am taking a bit of a pause from planet zoo I really like your habitats/zoo, the second picture and third picture are my favourites. Nice use of the pieces! The building in the background looks really good, and I simply cannot phantom to build something like that hahah. I sometimes just struggle with classical square buildings, let alone something like this. Good job

 

[KönigDerKaffeebohnen]

Thank you, but dont think so gloomy ^^
That building is honestly mostly just some limestone that i stacked, really really high, without a lot of detail, but i defenetly does have its charm. So not really any thing hard or technical, just something you actually need to try out.
But yeah building buildings can be hard to get right, but thats just simply how it is with everything in the game.
But if you want to learn how to make them pretty, i would recommend trying to use the arctic and the classic pack. It will give you very pretty and easy wood buildings, aswell as do wonders on the lime stone if you combine it with the dark wood. Especally the beams are amazing, so have fun with them ^^

For the third picture, thats actually part of a whoule zoo thread im having here called "Tiergarten Friedrichswalde". If you want to see more of it, i would recommend to take a little look in there, im sure you will like it if you like the picture. And if you want, you could even request an animal yourself, as the theme of the zoo is that i let people here in these forums choose what i build. Maybe theres an animal you really wanna use and dont know how, so maybe i could inspire you with that.